Violent Delights
by catscales
Summary: These violent delights have violent ends, Riddick returns to the ones left behind to play the dark hero. Jack has found solice in her beliefs and Imam in the life he has created, but darkness looms, lives collide and faith is challenged. JxR.
1. Fire And Powder

And so, it begins.

Riddick x Jack (all grown up)

Skip to the next line mark if you get bored, don't just go back.

* * *

Space stretched out before them, a gaping hole littered with stars once too far away to comprehend. The holy man prayed, handling precious beads with loving hands, muttering desperate pleas barely audible to his travelling companion.

Jack reclined in the co-pilot seat, staring at the darkness through heavily lidded eyes, deep bruises under her eyes betrayed a lack of sleep, fingernails chewed ragged showed the anxiety she felt. Beside her, Riddick had not stirred, even as his injured leg wept as infection began to blossom, his goggles hid his eyes, masked his feelings.

"It's odd." Her voice was raspy from lack of use, her words quiet, internally, their bodies screamed that it was night, but the skiff had no day or night simulations, they slept when their eyes wouldn't stay open any longer. "We're in a prime shipping lane, we should have crossed paths with another ship, been overtaken, picked up on radar."

Riddick silently turned in her direction, the only indication that he was still alive.

"Won't survive out here much longer." His hands caressed the shiv that sat openly in his lap, Jack had no doubt that if she were to ask, he wouldn't hesitate for a second to beat the looming threat of starvation and thirst. Spill her blood in a macabre waterfall; the last movement her body would make would be the dance of death, writhing on the dirty floor of an ancient skiff, a coffin in an endless sea. The monologue of her thoughts just comfirmed the dehydration getting to her brain.

Later, the measure of how much they had no idea, Imam had fallen asleep, tucked on a bench, folded in his robes, hands clutching his prayer beads, and at the front of the skiff, Jack and Riddick quietly conversed.

"You don't respect God?" She asked him, running her small hands over the last bottle of water from the kit they had found, tasteless packaged food that lasted forever, and water, most of it gone now. If there was a God, it was apparent that he had forsaken them.

"You were listening, I take it?" His voice rumbled in the silence, and with her eyes closed, Jack compared his to the animals she had read about, but never seen, gone hundreds of years before her time, on most planets at least.

"Baby in a trashcan." She murmured. "Does anyone come into this world happily anymore?"

"You have a family?" He asked, just because it was something to ask.

"What is a family?" Jack questioned. "The Crack Whore that birthed me, the Pimp that bought me, the Slavers I ran away from, the Alley Rats I ran with, the people we left down there to have their bones picked clean and bleached by the sun?"

"Guess this is family too?" Riddick mused, eyes darting back to the sleeping Imam, and then to Jack, whose green eyes swept the vast emptiness, as if expecting to see something else beside the nothingness.

"Maybe." She sighed. "You would have dumped us on a rock, kept running. Imam would have gone to temple, maybe taken a wife, prayed for the dead. I would have stolen, lived in back alleys, gotten too old to run with the Alley Rats and become a whore."

"Guess this is a family mausoleum now, huh?" Riddick asked, looking around at the small skiff.

"Are you okay, going out this way?" Her voice was a mere whisper, as she thought about the end.

"Are you?"

"It's just another way to die. I usually live." She was pensive for a moment. "Can you see anything out there?"

Riddick just chuckled darkly.

They didn't die on that Skiff, floating aimlessly in space.

* * *

_Six Years Later._

"Child, you are looking well." Jack smiled graciously at Imam on the communicator screen, knowing he took her in her shining hair and healthy complexion, as well as the shadows under her eyes and the weariness that betray her lack of sleep. There were some things cosmetics couldn't conceal.

"How is Little Sister?" Jack inquired.

"She complains of the heat." Imam chucked. "And she sends her love."

"She should come visit, it's Autumn here." Jack suggested, gesturing at the world outside of her bedroom. "As well as you and Lajjun."

"And you will not be too busy with your duties?" He asked.

"I'm not a Priestess yet Holy Man." She reminded him. "And I'd like to see my family."

"You feel we are complete as a family?" Abu asked her.

"What kind of family doesn't have a ghost lingering? Mother, father, children, perhaps you should petition Lajjun for a son?" Jack suggested lightly.

"You climbed enough trees, and fought enough fights as an adolescent, that I feel I have already raised a son. Although you were adamant that nobody had a hand in raising you, my daughter." Her Abu reminisced. Jack smiled sadly.

"Maybe you just tamed me." She mused.

"No one came tame a true animal, child." He told her.

"Is that why your eyes are sad?" She asked the man she considered father.

"Helion Prime is experiencing some, upheaval." Imam chose his words carefully.

"But our mutual friend remains hidden?" She chose her words equally as carefully.

"As long as there are still places to remain hidden in this universe." The frown didn't leave his face.

Jack sighed, knowing their time was limited. "Be safe." She told him.

"Learn much." He bid her, making her smile as she signed off.

A rapping on the door to her room drew her attention from the Comm. screen. Her fellow Acolyte entered the room, wearing similar jewel coloured robes, eyes darkly lined.

"The Lady wishes to see you." She told Jack.

"Thanks Amara." She bid the younger girl, waiting until the door was closed again before she stood, smoothing out her robes, fingers hesitating briefly over the weapons she needlessly kept hidden. Before she left the room, she gave it a cursory glance, committing to memory the place that everything held, and biting back the bitter reminder that Imam was right when he told her that some things never change.

* * *

Return to civilisation. All the things he hated, will always hate, there was a darkness behind the light that blinded him. They had finally caught up on him on UV-6, and even the flurry of snow and the roar of the storm couldn't mask an approach very much lacking in stealth. He settled back, feeling the cold of cryo drugs creeping through his veins like a sickly invader, the logical, thinking part of his brain closed down, as the animal side, primal and dangerous, prowled to the forefront of his mind, reminding his body that no amount of drugs could ever really quiet the instinct.

* * *

"Hello Jack." The Lady who greeted her casually, was an Elemental, a fire elemental, and just stepping closer to her granted Jack a reprieve from the cool air of the courtyard. A flurry of dying leaves was caught in the wind, and a stray leaf, not unlike a maple leaf, landed on the Lady's shoulder, instantly being incinerated.

"Lady Thera?" Jack questioned, moving towards an alter in the center of the courtyard, lighting a candle and watching it flicker in the wind.

"Elementals believe in balance." Thera explained, as if Jack were ignorant of this fact.

"I've heard it said that no Elemental is without their own agenda." Jack told the other woman, moving away from the alter and settling on a bench, her robes carefully draping around her.

"That is true." Thera acknowledged. "Do you know of the Elementals of the Aether? The sky, the heavens? It is what fills the void in the universe."

"With all due respect, beyond the atmospheres we create through terraforming to mimic Old Earth, space is merely emptiness until the next port of call." Jack told her.

"Maybe." Thera, lighting a candle of her own with the touch of a finger. "But there is always balance, we Elemental's calculate this balance, it allows us the foresight of when a place, or person, is going to thrive, or doomed to failure."

"And this is how you prophesise, calculation?" Jack questioned.

Thera smiled. "You are my favourite sceptic, you can believe in God, but not in science."

"You calculate, you don't worship. Makes me wonder why there are Elementals here on Siniah, a religious planet?" Jack asked, a slight smile on her face. "Why do you light candles on an alter?"

"We intervene, when necessary." Thera explained. "And it makes you more comfortable if we observe your customs."

"Did you ask me here to exchange philosophical quips?" Jack asked, examining her fingernails, painted a dark purple to contrast the ruby of her robes.

"No." Thera said. "As I said, we Elementals, where necessary, intervene. We have calculated, now is the time, this is the place, and you are the person."

"The person to do what?" Jack asked cautiously.

"You, unless precise intervention is undertaken, will die, and the universe will ignite." Thera told the younger girl bluntly.

"Wouldn't be the first time it becomes clear I'm meant to die." Jack said. "But the universe ignites?"

"There is one, we have spoken of him before, who, in his infinite rage, will destroy the universe in retribution, it has already begun."

"No one cares about me that much." Jack argued.

"What of your God, who is meant to love all?" Thera asked.

"There are a lot of people in the universe, this one and the next, I'm one of millions of billions, God can't keep watch on all his children."

"Then of the man who became your God in the darkness, when you thought yourself forsaken?" Thera asked, pursuing Jack as she began to pace the length of the courtyard. "And the family you adopted as your own back on Helion Prime?"

"Of all the people in my life, my family are the ones who matter most, and of _him,_ I know Imam would never betray his confidence." Jack stated. "I've faced death before, I'll do it again."

"Very well, shall we talk of inconsequential matters?" Thera asked. "I understand you are soon to undertake the rights to become a full Priestess."

"Yes, they asked me to choose a name for my initiation." Jack revealed, taking a seat on the bench once again.

"Indeed." Thera smiled in delight. "And what name have you chosen?"

"It's not certain, but I think I might choose Kyra."

Thera's smile grew wider.

* * *

There were no lights on when Imam entered his home. The silence, no fleeting footsteps or gentle humming, indicated that neither his wife nor daughter were home.

"Did you know all your doors were locked?" The voice startled him.

"You have returned." He almost made it a question, he feared for his family, unsure whether the years of isolation had driven away what humanity was left in this man.

"You're surprised to see me." Riddick stated, stepping from the shadows, his goggles glinting dangerously. "Makes me think you weren't the one who set the dogs on me."

"I have told no one." Imam insisted, from outside he could hear the swing of the front gate, a child's laughter bubbling away.

"Then the question is," Riddick moved closer, "and think about the little girl about to walk into this house when you answer." His voice dropped menacingly.

"Please, they have nothing to do with this." Imam begged.

"Where, is Jack?" Riddick's question made his blood turn to ice.

The door opened and a young girl entered brightly, bringing the sunshine with her. She stopped when she saw the man who stood in the foyer of her home.

"Are you the one who killed the monsters? The ones that were going to hurt my father?" She asked after a moment.

Riddick was saved from answering by the older woman who followed her daughter through the door, gasping in fear when she saw the man standing next to her husband.

"Riddick." She breathed, dragging her daughter back with hands that shook.

"Cute kid. Let's talk Holy Man." Riddick suggested.

Imam led him to a study, while his wife, Lajjun, led the girl from the house.

"I know you suspect her." Imam said of Jack, opening a window to reveal the dying sunlight.

Riddick turned a shiv over in his hands, a weapon he knew intimately until it was an extension of him. He knew the exact angle, and force needed to throw it across the room, could calculate the seconds it would take to be buried in the Holy Man's spine, his fingers itched to unleash it. He resisted the urge.

"Let me guess? Jackie-girl ran screaming from the place the minute the stole enough to jump ship and run?" Riddick asked. "Or stayed around and played the perfect daughter until the little one replaced her."

"She left three years ago." Imam confirmed. "However, her experiences allowed her to find her own God." He paused for a moment in reflection. "It was the only way she could forgive you, she saw you as an older brother."

"Found God huh?" Riddick didn't fail to find the irony in this; God had never looked out for her so she went looking.

"It was either that or follow you across the universe." Imam informed him.

"Religion means she's probably on a Planet Of Faith." Riddick mused. "Women only I'm guessing, never did trust men, three in this system, two Chrislam, one of the Goddess."

"I will not lead you to her, if you have dark intentions." Imam warned.

"I'm guessing from the way you turn your nose up, Jackie chose the Goddess, means she's on Siniah, close enough you can keep in contact easily, which is why you're sweating, 'cause I'm so close." Riddick deducted, turning to the window.

"Please." Imam begged. "You left her here so she could have a life, she feels she has a higher purpose now!"

"Don't we all." Riddick muttered, disappearing.

* * *

Things are a little bit shallow at the moment. Things will become clearer soon. I do know where this is going, have faith. The necros probably will be invovled, but there won't be a real dragging exploration of thier motives and faith, after all, we hate when our fav's aren't the bad guys.

Reviews encourage regular updates, don't add to subs if you don't review. Add a string of random words if anything, call it an experiment to see if people actually read the notes down the bottom. Now I'm rambling.


	2. Doubts Are Traitors

The movie version of a grown up Jack seemed not very smart. For a girl presumably used being delt a bad hand, she did some stupid shit. (Signing with mercs, getting slaved out, leaving Riddick on the runway, getting on the Necro ship.....) So I went all AU with my Jack, gave her a desperation for understanding for why her life happened to her. Hopefully throughout this fic we can all watch her grow a brain, cause thinking about her being approx. 17-19 means she's still young and immature. Oh and she's angry at Riddick, that's kind of unescapable. We'd be pissed off too.

* * *

The stillness disturbed Jack. The stars were hiding and from the balcony the trees stood still, no animals called out, nothing, like there was bigger things in the wildness.

She shivered, wrapping her shawl around herself tighter, turning around to kneel once more at the small alter just inside her room. The red and white candles burnt brightly, twice as fast with the lack of wind, and the scent of melting wax permeated the room.

Jack pursed her lips and gently blew the candles out for the night, fingers unwrapping the shimmery material from around her body; knives were revealed and reverently laid out on a chest where they glinted softly. Grabbing a soft, short robe, Jack wrapped it around herself and set to removing the pins that held her coiled hair up, letting it fall down her back in a river of curls.

Between her eyebrows, a faint crease formed, and before she could think twice, her hand shot out to grab a blade, her body turning fluidly as she threw it into the dark corner of the room. Riddick deftly sidestepped away from the projectile, striking quickly to pin Jack against a wall before she could grasp any more weapons.

"Still mad Jack?" He asked quietly, aware that commotion would attract attention.

"What are you doing here?" She spat at him angrily, struggling against his hold.

"Funny thing, someone sent mercs my way." Riddick informed her darkly, one hands holding her hands together over her head, the other sneaking up to grasp her throat in a chokehold.

"And you think I ratted you out?" She asked, trying to get loose. "I'm an acolyte on a religious planet, I don't exactly have a wish to go planet hopping with a murderer."

Riddick let her go, only for Jack to swiftly turn sweep his legs out from under him, his hands grabbing her to pull her down as well, rolling her underneath him and pinning him to the ground.

"Enough!" He snapped, legs holding hers down to prevent her from kneeing him.

"What the hell are you doing here Riddick?" Jack asked, her voice quiet, but furious.

"Could ask you the same thing." He told her, loosening his grip so she could crawl out from underneath him, her legs scrabbling for purchase on the soft plush carpet.

"Taking my holy orders." Jack snapped. "And given that you're you, I don't think you've come here to pray to the Goddess."

"You really want to devote yourself to someone who let you suffer?" Riddick questioned. "The God who let you get slaved out, abused, raped?" He began to crowd her into a corner.

"Shut up, you know nothing of my past." Jack told him, trying to push him away.

"I know you were the product of a crack whore, I know you killed the man who brought you, raped you."

Jack covered her ears defiantly. "Shut up!"

"What? Truth too much?" He had her backed in a corner, facing her memories, her small hands trying to slap him away, all her fighting prowess gone. "Who sent the mercs after me Jack?"

"I don't know!" She insisted.

"Oh come on, what did they do, try to torture you?" He asked. "You were tortured before, as a child, you could have taken it."

"I didn't know where you were!" Jack exploded, her fist flying into his face, a knife from the small of her back slashed across his ribs. An accompanying kick to the solar plexus drove him back, followed by another blow that skimmed across his cheekbone, and through it all, he allowed her to attack him, not retaliating until she stopped. Shaking her curls from her face, she regarded him through angry eyes.

"Done yet?" He asked cockily, and she threw the blade at him.

"Leave here. Leave this planet." She demanded. "Now."

The sounds of screams reached Riddick's ears, and Jack's a moment later when they grew louder. She was by the door in a second, using the glint of a blade to peer into the corridor, she snapped back in the room, shutting the door quietly and staring at Riddick with an enraged expression.

"You led the mercs here?" She asked angrily, striding to the bed to pull from underneath it, a black duffle bag, opening it to reveal assorted weapons. "Sounds like the whole fuckin' compound is crawling with them!"

"You don't seem all that worried." Riddick observed, looking over the weapons she had.  
"These girls can take care of themselves, it's what they do." She told him roughly, pulling off her robe to reveal a short shift dress. She set to work strapping knives to herself and holstering several guns before she hurried to the balcony.

"You got a way off this rock?" Riddick questioned, examining the drop to the ground.

"Skiff on a bluff, not too far from here, ship anchored in orbit." Jack explained, her expression became weary when he turned his back to her to lift his goggles and peer into the darkness. "I know that look, I don't even have to see your face and I know that look."

"It'll be fast." He told her.

"You do know what they do to people who abandon this faith don't you?" Jack asked.

"People have done worse to you." Riddick mused.

"Nobody's tried to sacrifice me on an alter before." Jack told him, quickly becoming further pissed off. "We go now or you see what these girls are trained to do."

"Not worried about the mercs?"

"Fuck 'em, they'll be dead by dawn." Jack said, glancing at his silver eyes briefly before climbing onto the rail and preparing to jump. Riddick beat her to the chase, throwing himself over and landing with a thud, Jack shook her head and followed, rolling into the drop like she'd been taught before springing to her feet and examining the darkness. What could be mistaken as the twin moons of Siniah glinted in the darkness, and Jack followed quickly, stumbling through the darkness before a large hand wrapped around her bicep and guided her over scattered jagged rocks.

"Got any flares?" his voice asked from the darkness and Jack unstrapped one of a pair bound to her thigh. Cracking it resulted in an almost blinding red light that slashed through the darkness and allowed her to follow him quickly, mindful of those who could see the light at a distance.

"There should be a path ahead." Jack called to Riddick, directing him through the forest until he reached the path leading to the bluff.

"How much further?" Riddick called behind him as they began to ascend a rocky trail winding around a mountain, from up a little higher they could see the fire that had broken out in the compound.

"About a half-mile." Jack told him, still holding the flare. "Move quickly, the trail winds around, hiding us from being seen."

They moved quickly, and as stealthily as the terrain would allow, eventually the trail broadened out into an open area overlooking a view that would have been more unforgettable in the sunshine.

Jack paid no heed to the edge, using the dying light of the flare to remove foliage to reveal the small skiff lying dormant.

"This thing prepped?" Riddick asked as Jack keyed in an entry code.

"As of last month, powered up and good to go."

"Not quite." The new voice that joined them was accompanied by the unmistakable sound of the gun cocking, making Riddick and Jack stiffen, turning slowly to face the half a dozen mercs standing behind them.

Floodlights were lit up, making Jack squint and Riddick pull his goggles over his eyes as the pair of them calmly observed the man who stood before them.

"Toombs." Jack said by way if greeting. "Come for a matching scar?" She gestured to the side of his face.

"Oh you little bitch." He chuckled. "Right after our boy there is in chains, I am going to fuck you up!"

Jack scoffed. "Toombs, you wouldn't know what to do with it if you had one." She told him condescendingly. Her hand slowly drew its way up her thigh towards a knife, but the barrel lying close to her temple stopped her efforts. The merc who held it had a steady hand, but his eyes were not the stone cold killer eyes sported by most men who dealt with killers on a day-to-day basis.

"New team looks a little shaky." Riddick observed, walking down the ramp of the skiff to stand close to Jack, giving a dark look towards the merc with the gun near her head.

"Six man team." Jack counted. "Big mistake."

"Fucking insulting." Riddick spat. Jack eyed the floodlights they had erected around the bluff, meaning the ship had already been marked before they had arrived, her eyes narrowed.

"Just how long have you been watching me Toombs?" Jack asked. "Before Riddick here made his reappearance."

"Well darlin'." Toombs told her. "I remembered what a nice piece of ass you were, heard from a few friends too, thought it'd be good to keep my eye of you, just in case."

Jack's eyes narrowed and before anyone could fire, grabbed a knife and jammed it into the eye of the merc holding the gun to her head. Snatching his gun as he fell, she turned it on the nearest merc, sending several rounds into his torso. Riddick moved in a flurry of deadly speed and weaponry, shivs flashing as he made short work of three of the them, before he disarmed Toombs, leaving the merc defenceless as Jack cut the power source to the lights.

"You're not afraid of the dark are you?" Riddick's voice rumbled, followed by a snicker from Jack.

"We should jump already." Jack told him. "Leave him for the girls, they'll kill him slowly."

Riddick left him something to remember them by, by the way of a knife through his hand, pinning him to the ground before he slipped onto the skiff and into the pilot's seat.

"So." Jack asked as she prepped the ship quickly. "Where the fuck are we going?"

Before he could answer, the smell of blood reached his nose, sharp, coppery and familiar. His head snapped to where Jack sat flipping switches and powering up the tiny skiff.

"You bleeding?" He asked as he took primary control and began to lift off.

"Oh fuck." Jack eyed the gash in her thigh. "Where the fuck did that come from?"

"You got anything to bind it?" Riddick asked as they began to break from the atmosphere, artificial gravity kicking in.

"This bitch is gonna need stiches." Jack winced, probing the edges of the wound with her fingers, causing warm blood to drip down her leg, poling on the floor beneath her chair. Jack ripped a strip off her already short shift and knotted the material around her leg, gritting her teeth as she tied it tightly. When it was done, she leant back and closed her eyes, breathing out a sigh of relief.

"You with me Jack?" Riddick asked, removing his goggles so he could see her in the dim light.

"Hit the rotation pre-set." Jack instructed, eyes still closed, voice quiet. "Auto should take us to the ship complete with docking. After that you can drop me off nearest station."

"You givin' me a ship Jackie?" His deep voice rumbled,

"Oh, please. I jacked it off some traders before I settled on Siniah." She explained. "Figured I'd need a way out, one way or another." Settling back on the seat, she let her breathing even out.

"Don't go to sleep." Riddick warned.

"Piss off." Her words were met with a rumbling laugh.

* * *

This chapter was a little shorter, quick and nasty. Review if you like, be a bitch if you didn't. Review cause it makes me want to write me. Don't point out punctuation and spelling mistakes, I'm Austalian, I use word spellcheck, take it up with windows.


	3. Sable Night

I know I promised things would get a little less hazy, and they will, eventually. Reviews, as always, are much appreciated.

* * *

The ship was, as promised, anchored in orbit, in the shadow of Siniah, kept out of sun, in darkness, his element. The ship gradually began to awaken, artificial gravity activating, air and water recycling systems coming online, followed by lights blinking.

Jack stood stiffly, opening the door to the skiff and limping into an empty cargo hold. Riddick watched her for a moment before sweeping her into his arms.

"Med bay?" He grunted. Jack, wearing from blood loss, just pointed, only opening her eyes when he set her down on an empty bed.

"Cockpit's up the hallway, to the left." Jack instructed. "I need you to take me to New Mecca."

"No." Riddick shook his head, sorting through draws until he found a suture kit. Turning the lights down very low, he pulled off his goggles to inspect her leg. "If something's going down, I want you close."

"My family is on New Mecca." Jack said through gritted teeth as Riddick washed the gash on her thigh, pinching the skin together.

"You gonna tell me who got the mercs on my ass?" He asked, threading a needle through her skin.

"You've always got mercs on your ass." Jack spat. "They finally caught up with you, it happens."

"So, you gonna tell me what the hell you were doing on a religious planet?" His silver eyes glanced up at her briefly.

"I'm not free to pursue my beliefs?" Jack asked. "I was raised by a Holy Man, what do you expect?"

"I know you spent about three years on Helion Prime before you jumped." He informed her. "I know you've only been on Siniah for a year now, funny thing is, two years and you were gone without a trace."

"I went looking." She admitted.

"For me?" He asked curiously. "You have a ship you got from traders, you were on a planet known for religious whores and from the looks of it, slave marks." He pulled up her sleeve to look at her left forearm.

"You know I was slaved out as a child, nothing new here." She bit back, rolling her sleeve back down and resuming her death grip on the table as he finished the final suture and set about bandaging her leg. "I wasn't looking for you, Imam had a family, he was on a council, I damaged his rep, and I needed to find my own place."

"So you went to become a whore in the name of a God?" Riddick asked.

"I devoted myself to a religion, just because you have no grounds for belief." Jack bitched at him. "Just dump me on New Mecca, you've done it before, shouldn't be too hard."

"And what's on New Mecca, cause I want this bounty off my head!" He yelled at her.

"Then why come looking for me?" Jack asked, deadly quiet. "You know I didn't know where you were going, you know the answer to this is probably on New Mecca."

"I told you to stay on New Mecca!" He threw something across the room and pulled out a blade. "Why shouldn't I cut your throat now, if you don't have what I need?"

"There was an elemental on Siniah." Jack told him. "She told me I was going to die, she mentioned my family, and they are all I've got now. I'd wager the elementals would know something."

"You're gonna die then?" Riddick asked, turning away, leaving Jack in an uncomfortable darkness. "Wouldn't be the first time things don't work out in your favour."

"She mentioned you as well." Jack said. "She said if I die, the universe would ignite. Imam wrote to me, he spoke of his meetings with an elemental advising the New Meccan council, so I need to speak to this elemental."

Riddick was silent for a moment before he turned back to her. "If I think that at any point, you're screwin' me, I will kill you."

"Go do a thermal sweep for trackers." Jack ordered condescendingly. "I'll try find you some clean clothes."

While Riddick ran the sweep and set course for Helion Prime, Jack uncovered the carefully stored clothing, running her hands over silk dresses, robes and gowns, as well as the stocky clothing of traders much like Riddick's own. Washing quickly, she scented her hair lightly and swept it up off her neck, discarding her dirty shift and carefully wrapping herself in a dark red gown complete with golden embroidery, trying it with a sash of silky black. Her feet, she left bare, however, adorning her ears, upper arm, and décolletage with jewels befitting a priestess of the Goddess. Lining her eyes darkly, she emerged from the washroom and walking without any noticeable limp, she took clean clothes to Riddick.

"All dolled up, going nowhere for a while." Riddick muttered from the darkness, like a sullen child.

"A Holy Man does not stop praying when there is no one around the observe." Jack chided. "A devotee of the Goddess doesn't go unadorned, lest she forgets her station."

"Sounds like a load of bullshit, you girls whores or what?"

"Is that your way of asking if we trade sex for religious gratification?" Jack asked.

"English Jack, language ain't dead yet."

"No, we don't have sex for religion, we take vows of celibacy." Jack informed him.

"So what, pure forever?" He sounded amused.

"We both know I'm far from pure." Jack reminded him. "We, more or less don't have sex once we assume our positions in the temple. The older Priestesses encourage the younger, not yet vowed girls to have sex, so that they know what they resist. That's what encourages rumours that we're all whores."

"Oh come on Jack." Riddick said. "We both know a wink would have you outta that dress in a heartbeat. You ain't no Goddess worshipping zombie, you like the action."

"And what action are you referring to?" Jack asked angrily. Thrusting the clothes into his arms, she gathered her skirts in hand and made to leave the cockpit. "So I can be a whore 'cause as a woman my body is typically the only thing to sell when times get tough, or I'm a whore because I stopped dressing like a boy, or better yet, I'm a whore because all but two of the men in my life have laid hands on me in a way that no man should touch a little girl."

"Should've stayed on New Mecca, told you I'd come back." His voice sounded bitter.

"And what, you could have met my husband?" Jack asked, eyes brimming with unshed tears. "My children, watched me grow a garden, get fat, waited for you for the rest of eternity."

"Beats sittin' in a temple getting old, while waiting for a sign from a God that doesn't give a shit about you."

"Did you think I'd be a little girl forever?" Jack asked. "I thought you were like a brother, you taught me to defend myself, you proved that not all men wanted bad things, and then you leave, I wasn't going to sit there like a doll forever Riddick!"

"I had mercs on my neck! I will always have mercs on my neck!" He roared at her, moving closer.

"And now they're on my neck Riddick! I threw Toombs off two years ago, I don't need a repeat of this shit." She exclaimed.

"Well put a pair of pants on Priestess, cause I'm not watching your ass every time there's a fight." He ordered.

"Got to hell." She told him, storming out as best as her leg would let her.

The next few days were ones of stilted silence. Jack made herself a makeshift alter, complete with candles, dressed in her temple finery and ignored Riddick, who either sat in the cockpit staring into space, or performed a gruelling exercise routine that left him covered in sweat.

The only food on board was survival rations, not unlike the ones they lived on when they floated through space in a cramped skiff. When the bright sun of the Helios system came into view, Jack sighed in relief and watched the home of her family grow as they moved closer.

It was when Jack saw the buildings on the ground, and the people in the marketplace, did a familiar sense of foreboding came creeping to the recesses of her mind. Lost in the dark thoughts that plagued her, she didn't hear Riddick approach until he was next to her.

"Something's not right." Jack shook her head and looked at him, he observed the planet through goggled eyes, making his expression impossible to decipher.

"No comms, no interplanetary customs, no other ships." Riddick observed.

"But everyone's going around like nothing's wrong." Jack frowned. "Just get us on the ground, I need to see my family."

Riddick made her wait until the sun started setting before allowing her to move off the ship and towards Imam's home. Keeping her robes covering her body and face, she moved through the lazy evening crowd while Riddick ran in the shadows in his typical manner, and even though she couldn't see him, she could feel his eyes on her at all times.

As she walked up the path to Imam's door, he materialised beside her, taking her elbow in his hand and keeping her close as opened the door without invitation and ushered her inside. There was a gasp and the sound of breaking glass as Jack began to unwind the material that covered her hair and face, before her eyes could adjust to the dim lighting, she was jolted as Ziza jumped into her arms, crying her name happily.

"Jack, you're back!" She exclaimed, launching into a tirade of Arabic before Jack swung her more comfortably onto her hip.

"English Ziza." She laughed, embracing her little sister warmly.

"Daddy said we might get to visit you, but he didn't say you were coming here and is Mr. Riddick your friend?" Ziza rattled off her questions, even as her mother came to retrieve her, embracing Jack fleetingly before backing away from Riddick, who stood, half in candlelight, half in shadows.

"You have returned." Imam stated, ushering Lajjun and Ziza back to the kitchen, offering his own embraced to his adopted daughter. "I thought you planned to complete your devotion to the Goddess."

"Toombs." Jack offered by way of explanation. "And I need to speak to Aereon."

"Why do you need to consult with an Elemental?" Imam asked, confused.

"Why did you send the mercs after Riddick, and then Riddick after me?" Jack returned a question.

"There is no easy answer-" Imam's words were cut off by Riddick's blade pressed against his throat.

"You played me Holy Man?" His eyes, though hidden by his goggles, expressed his anger.

"Would you not have done the same?" Imam questioned of them. "Aereon has told me things, young Jack, and like a father, I worry for your safety."

"She told you I was going to die." Jack confirmed. "And you called in the darkest bodyguard you know."

"All an act then Imam?" Riddick asked, removing the blade from his throat, still looking furious. "Now, who do I have to kill to get this bounty off my head?"

Whoever Imam had called, came quickly under the cover of night. Jack watched Riddick remove their head cloths, memorising their faces, she felt the chill in her bones before the wispy air elemental materialised, Riddick's blade at her neck.

"And whose throat is this?" He asked.

"Aereon." Jack answered for her, approaching the elemental.

"If you cut my throat, I will not be able to rescind the offer that bought you here." Aereon pointed out, Riddick paused for a moment before drawing the blade away from her neck. "Jack, you've become a lovely young lady."

"Just tell us what we're doing here." Jack demanded wearily.

"I believe you have spoken with my fellow elemental about a series of calculations, predicting a prophecy." Aereon explained.

"My death as a catalyst." Jack agreed. "I fail to see how it sparks anything."

"Perhaps the events of two years ago are important." Aereon stated bluntly.

"That doesn't matter, it never did." Jack protested, crossing the room to stand at the window, looking down into the street, almost instinctively, Riddick moved to put himself between her and the window.

"What happened two years ago?" He asked.

"I did something stupid, it doesn't matter." Jack dismissed the query, choosing instead to thumb the blade in her hand.

"There is a dark army that makes it move towards Helion Prime, they say the comet precedes them. They will destroy this planet, like they have done many others, with whole Aquilian System is gone, twenty million settlers missing." Imam explained, gesturing towards the light that streaked towards them from so far away.

"A long time ago, it was foretold that only Furyian warriors could stop the army, Aereon explained, Jack's head whipped around to look at Riddick.

"Baby in a trashcan." She whispered, shaking her head.

"What do you remember about your home planet?" One of the clerics questioned.

"Have you met any others?"

"Others like yourself?" Aereon asked.

Riddick chuckled darkly, goggles and blades flashing in the candlelight.

"Sister, they don't know what to do with just one of me."

"And if he is this foretold warrior?" Jack asked. "What is he to do, one man against an entire army?"

"He can keep you alive Jack." Imam comforted her with empty words.

Jack shook her head. "This isn't that planet Imam, there is no light to hide in. He's just a man."

"You people need to stay away from me." Riddick muttered.

"Will you leave us to our fate?" Imam asked of him. "You could earn back your humanity."

"You make it sound like I was once human." Riddick pointed out. "I'm jumping rock, Jack, you can come with me, go back to a Holy Planet, or stay here."

"Choose between my family, my faith, or you." Jack laughed bitterly. "All the while knowing that death is coming."

"If you stay here, you will die." Aereon stated bluntly. "I you go, they will follow you."

"I bring death to everyone I love." Jack muttered, head in her hands. "Okay."

"Okay?" Imam asked, concerned.

"I'll go with Riddick, fight one evil with another." She conceded.

"This is not a permanent solution." Aereon warned.

"The whole universe is circling the drain?" Riddick asked, the clerics nodded in affirmation. "Had to end sometime. Let's go."

"Please." Imam begged. "Think of your sister. We can protect you here."

Riddick scoffed. "Can't even protect yourself.

"He's right." Jack embraced her foster father briefly. "Give my love to Lajjun and Little Sister, I will see you soon."

"Please Riddick." Aereon beseeched. "Once this planet is gone, they will consume all of them until there is nowhere left to hide, in this universe – or the next."

"Let's go Jack." He ordered, disappearing, leaving Jack to cast one last longing look at her father and all he represented, before she followed in a flurry of robes.

* * *

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	4. Greatness Thrust Upon Him

Don't look now, but I might be forming a plot. Sorry about the wait, I ran into some technical difficulties, and have now upgraded in computer, which means learning how to operate a new system, new keyboard has also thrown off the touch typing, so any typo's means I just suck.

Those who added this to story alert without reviewing, I hate you and so do the other people who put this out there for people to read. You guys are just awful, no really, I hate you.

* * *

"Where are we going?" Jack asked when she reached the ship, Riddick already prepping for launch.

"Sit down." He ordered.

"I asked you a question." She pointed out, remaining standing.

"And I told you to sit your ass down." He countered.

"If I'm leaving everything behind, I have a right to know where the hell we're going!" Jack argued.

"Jack!" His voice rose, and almost on instinct, she dropped into a seat. His hand ran over his bare head in frustration. Swearing, he slammed his hand onto the console before powering down the ship, leaving the two of them sitting there in darkness and silence.

"Aereon's right." Jack's voice was a whisper in the darkness. "Soon, there will be nowhere left to do, just space."

"Not my fight." Riddick said, but his voice lacked his previous convictions.

"This is everyone's fight." Jack argued.

Riddick swore again, and turned to leave the cockpit.

"You coming or what?" He asked as he walked away.

Their return was met with the delight of the Helion Council leaders, and Aereon's own smug smile, while Imam greeted them with dark eyes, worry etched into the fine lines around his face, almost as if expecting them, an emergency council session had been arranged.

The council session was packed as residents of Helion Prime representing different factions and religions, fought to be heard in the chaos. When they had arrived, Imam had hurried across the room to join the Chrislam representatives of New Mecca, while Jack had gracefully crossed the room to stand in front of the easily identified Priestesses of the Goddess. An older woman in elegantly draped robes laid a hand on her shoulder before embracing her, another acolyte handing Jack a candle. Riddick stood there, observing the people who pushed and shoved, seeing the wide berth everyone gave to the small group of Elementals – five in all.

"They have to vote." Riddick hadn't heard Jack approach in the noisy arena, but he had smelt the gentle perfume she wore.

"Vote for what?"

"Generally, of all the religions and factions represented, it takes a vote of more than half to agree to action, only the major groups are here." Jack noted, looking around.

"And who do you stand with?" Riddick asked, guiding her across the room to stand in the shadow of a pillar, where people did not incessantly push and shove.

"With the Goddess." Jack informed him, shifting slightly in a way that made hidden weapons flash in the light before relaxing again. "And they believe in action before submission."

"And the rest of them?" He questioned as they watched the proceedings, Riddick looming over her shoulder.

"The Chrislams, although normally peaceful, agree that fighting is inescapable." Jack explained. "As do most other beliefs, they are several, however, that feel that we should evacuate, or hunker down."

"Good way to get killed." Riddick observed.

"They say this army, these_ Necromongers_, they convert, or kill."

"Convert?" He made it a question.

"The Elemental's words, not mine." She clarified. "Five, more elementals in one place away from Quintessa then has ever been seen, it's making people fearful."

"They have a say in how this goes?"

"No, but people listen to them, even now, they're probably calculating the outcome of all of this."

"People!" A booming voice sounded from the pit of people, and everyone drew back to reveal the Chairman standing in the center of the room. "Please, everyone, settle down, and receive a candle." There were hundreds of candles being passed throughout the room for voting.

"There are few of us who have met a Necromonger and lived to speak of it." Aereon's elegant voice rose about the noise and a dead silence fell over the crowd as they listened to the Elemental speak.

"Necromonger?" Someone shouted the question from the crowd.

"It is the name that will convert, or kill, all human life until there is nothing left." Aereon announced. "With their viciousness they ignite an unholy war, their aim, to conquer all life until they reach the threshold of death. If they are to be defeated, a new balance must be found."

"And what balance do you speak of?" The voice of the older Priestess, who had embraced Jack, rang out.

"Do not be critical of the need for balance." It was Thera who stepped forward from the huddle of Elementals, to stand beside Aereon. "Sometimes, evil cannot be fought with good, sometimes it requires another kind of evil." Jack felt Riddick tense behind her.

"Explains the bounty on your head." Jack muttered to him.

"Violence is not the answer!" A shrill voice shouted. "We can make peace with these people."

"There is no peace to be had with them." Aereon announced. "The man who leads them wages this war with the intention of showing no mercy."

"So what do you ask of us?" A lady with her hair twisted into a thousand little braids questioned.

"There is one, the sole remainder of a planet, long destroyed by the Lord Marshal, leader of the Necromongers." Aereon announced. "It is he who will lead our own army to victory. Riddick."

The hall, once shrouded in perfect silence, erupted into pandemonium.

"You cannot be serious?" Someone yelled.

Riddick drew Jack back further as the crowd seized in anger.

"He is a known and wanted murderer!" Came a cry.

"Listen!" It was Jack whose voice was heard clearly. Moving away from Riddick, she stood in front of the crowd. "You listen! They are coming and they are going to kill every man, woman and child who stand in their way!"

"We don't need him to help us fight them!" Someone shouted. Riddick tighten his grip on the shiv in his hand as anger turned towards Jack.

"No? Then take your chances and suffer for it." Jack yelled at him. "But wouldn't you rather have a fighting chance?"

"Its madness is what it is!" Came another cry from the crowd.

"Is it madness to use whatever resources are available, in order to fight for our independence?" Jack questioned of them. "What place do you think your children have in the Necromonger world? They don't!"

Her words cast the arena into silence, not even a whisper broke through the trance that seemed to have fallen upon the crowd.

"We have calculated." Aereon spoke softly. "This is the only way. What other option is there?"

"We gather supplies, go deep into the planet, into the shelters built for this very purpose!"

"And wait to die?" Someone questioned.

"We can evacuate the planet?"

"Helion Prime is the light of this universe, we would be nothing if the light were to extinguish."

"There are other universes!"

"Please." The call came from a Priestess of the Goddess. "We came to this universe, we look to the light of Helion Prime, because this is one of the few places left where we can live without fear of persecution for our beliefs. If we do not have this place, then there is no place we can live in harmony." Silence settled over the crowd again.

"Please." The Chairman spoke again. "We must vote, light your candles if you vote for the Elemental's suggestion, to put our trust in the Riddick, to fight. For those who wish to flee, leave your candles unlit."

Everyone moved slowly, lighting candles using the flames that licked the air from wall mounts to light their candles and offering the light to their neighbour as a spread of fire raced around. Some stubbornly refused to the light the candles they held, keeping a flat palm over the unlit wick.

"It's close." Jack had moved closer to Riddick, her own candle burning brightly.

"That is it then." The Chairman spoke. "We put our trust in the hands of Riddick, to lead us to victory, or to the end."

"What are the odds of that?" Jack murmured.

* * *

"There will be a ceremony." Imam explained in the New Meccan council hall, where envoys from different factions were being housed. Riddick, Jack and Aereon currently listened to his explanation of how power of the Helion military would be surrendered to Riddick.

"Not really a fan of ceremonies, Imam." Riddick said, reclining back in a chair, boots on the table. Eyes hidden from the warm light of the setting sun that seeped through the open windows, bringing the promise of a cold night. Across from Riddick, Jack and Aereon sat delicately, robes splayed around them, hands resting in their laps. Where Aereon maintained a cool, calm exterior, every time Riddick opened his mouth to offer a crude comment, Jack would flinch, her eyes closing in exasperation as she bit back an exclamation each time.

"It will be quick, symbolic." Imam attempted to persuade him. Riddick shook his head.

"Just agree to the damn ceremony!" Jack shouted at him, breaking decorum, followed by an apology to Aereon, who remained unruffled by her outburst.

"If the Priestess insists." Riddick baited.

"I am an Acolyte." Jack snapped, hands twisting furiously on her lap.

"The leaders of each military will submit to your command." Imam raised his voice to bring attention, leaving Riddick smirking and Jack pouting like a sullen child.

"How long?" Riddick asked.

"The ceremony? Not long, less than-"

Imam was cut off by Riddick speaking again. "No, how long until the Necromongers come?"

"Twenty two days." He replied, leaving a pensive silence between the

four of them. Jack frowned as she thought about the familiarity of that number.

"Twenty two days to bring forth an army to rival the forces approaching." Jack bit her lip after speaking, shaking her head lightly. "We'd have to call in reinforcements from all the outer planets in the system, amass weapons, train fighters, we don't have the time."

"These Necro's got weapons?" Riddick asked, running a thumb over the blade he held.

"They fight with sophisticated weaponry." Aereon announced, dampening the mood further.

"And if they didn't have projectile weaponry?" Jack asked, "What if we evened the playing field?"

"How would we do that?" Imam asked.

"They're going to land in New Mecca, it's the capital right?" She asked, summoning a schematic onto the tabletop and bringing forth the images of New Mecca. "What is secondary ships were unable to breach the atmo?"

"We'd only have foot soldiers to face." Riddick muttered.

"There is the matter of the explosive devices that are planted on the surface of a planet." Aereon pointed out.

"Which would have to be accessed from a distance, to allow the armada to escape?" Jack questioned. "What if they were unable to establish a link?"

"How would we achieve any of this?" Imam asked.

"Electromagnetic interference." Jack announced. "Hidden within a purposely created Ion cloud that masks it, added to EMP's to knock out smaller ships. We'd have to assume the larger ships would be protected from the surge."

"We'd risk our own defence ships." Riddick argued.

"That's the point, abandon modern warfare devices, evacuate the cities, use it as a battlefield, we have home advantage."

"But how do we defeat them?" Imam asked.

"Riddick." Jack suggested. "Riddick and a specialised team assassinate the Lord Marshal."

"Lots of room for error." Riddick noted, leaning over the maps of New Mecca and investigating the building structure.

"We have twenty two days to iron out a plan." Jack pointed out.

Aereon and Imam nodded in agreement, while Riddick stared at Jack through his goggles.

"We need men, lots of men." He relented.

"Women too?" Jack asked.

"Who you got in mind?" Riddick asked.

"The Priestesses of the Goddess are all skilled in combat, as are several other female dominated factions." She explained.

"We Chrislams do not approve of women in combat." Imam argued.

"Too bad." Riddick said, heading towards the door.

"The ceremony will be in the morning." Imam called after him.

"I'll make sure he gets there." Jack said.

"Jack." Imam's voice stopped her from leaving the room, and Aereon excused herself to give them privacy. "I know you feel you owe Riddick a life debt."

"I don't owe Riddick anything." Jack protested.

"Nonetheless young Jack, do try to remember the sacred vows you have spoken." Imam reminded her.

"I'm still an Acolyte." Jack told him. "And I know the vows I took, don't think because Riddick's back here, in ours lives, that it compromises my integrity."

"Call it a father being concerned for his daughter." Imam told her softly, embracing her gently. "Will you be returning home tonight?"

"No. I'm being housed with the other Priestesses as envoys from Siniah, and if not then we will be staying the temple with the others."

"Be safe, my daughter." Imam bid her.

After he left, Jack stood in the empty room, head bowed, deep in thought as she contemplated the rapidly approaching future, eventually, she too turned to leave, just as the last of the warm sunshine leaked away and the room was hushed to darkness.

* * *

Review, or the next chapter will have about 100 words in it. Anyone noticing the significant number use? 22? Anyone, anyone. *Crickets*


	5. O, So Light A Foot

Yeah you guessed right. Reviews are really really really appr- you know what, you get the message.

* * *

Jack wondered open fields mindlessly, the hem of her robes brushing dew covered grass, feet bare, face opened to the sun.

"_Twenty two years_." It was Carolyn Fry who whispered it in her ear, eyes filled with the horror of her final moments.

"_It would be a lasting darkness._" Imam too, walked along with her, and trailing behind him obediently, his three charges, Hassan, Ali, and Suleiman, still children as they would forever be, not the men they would have grown to become.

"_An eclipse._" Fry whispered it like a promise, turning back to watch Johns, Zeke and Shazza trail in her stead, the bumbling Paris straggled behind, arms cradling his precious wines.

They walked together, appreciating the beauty of a planet they never saw, watching the celestial alignment in the heavens above, the intersection of the planets hiding the suns from view, enfolding the fields in darkness, then the grass turned to hot sand, and her feet were burning. Her hand nervously ghosted over her shaved head and fear flooded her body as the sinister whooping and clicking filled the air.

"Where the hell's your God now?" Riddick laughed darkly as the air filled with dark whispers, the heavens opened and rain poured in sheets.

Jack shot up in her bed, twisted in her sheets, chest burning as she gasped, her hair hung in heavy lengths down her back, hand clutching a shiv in a white knuckled grip.

"Lights." Her voice was hoarse, throat dry, the waterglass on her nightstand empty. the lights flickered on weakly, illuminating a sparsely furnished room with little more than a bed, nightstand and chest in which to store her clothes.

Outside the high set window, night had settled over New Mecca, even as lights continued streaming from the planet, and past that, into the darkness, a star grew bright as it streamed toward Helion Prime.

* * *

The ceremony was brief and sombre, people filed into a natural rock hall, deep beneath New Mecca, gathering with their own and choosing not to mingle, the religions of Helion Prime and the surrounding planets and moons, were spread before them in a rainbow of belief. Outside, rain had begun to drizzle and the humidity caused discomfort in the press of bodies, all of whom came to witness the last hope.

Riddick stood before the crowd, the natural darkness of the hall offset by the multitude of torches that lined the walls and were carried in the hands of the people, the kind of dim light that stood on the threshold of causing pain to his eyes, but made him struggle to see through the tint of his goggles.

Imam stood in the crowd, close to where Riddick stood, in the middle of it all, Lajjun at his side, Ziza in his arms, looking around for Jack, who was not with the Priestess of the Goddess, who were few in number, but still recognisable in their finery. his concern mounted as the ceremony began, the head of the New Meccan council performing necessary introductions to the crowd before a the Elementals came to stand near Riddick, Aereon at his side, Thera next to her, three others stood behind him, one, green skinned, trailing vines, the other with damp skin and hair, and the last, wearing darkness as a hood, face hidden from the light.

The crowd sitting all rose to their feet and parted to leave a narrow strip bare, along which a procession walked, all barefoot on the dirt, five of them, with offerings in their arms, the first to reach Riddick was a little girl, no more than five years old, from the Church of the Children, her little fingers wrapped around a bright red candle that burned brightly.

"The light of Helios." Her high voice rang out clearly in the silent room as she placed the candle on the floor in front of him, dropping in a clumsy curtsey before toddling off to the side where Aereon waited with an open hand.

The teenage boy who followed looked up at Riddick, awe in his eyes as he too, knelt to place a bowl of water beside the candle in an offering from the Chrislam community

"To cleanse and purify." He offered, moving to stand beside the little girl.

An elderly lady in a sweeping gown, placed a burner of incense at his feet near the candle and water, filling the air with an overwhelming scent, all the while Riddick stood unmoving.

"The air we breathe." She touched her fingertips to her lips and gesture towards him before moving away.

From the Free People of Helios, a Dignitary placed a potted plant at Riddick's feet, the leaves open and green, the soil dark.

"The soil in which we grow our trees."

The last of the process was a Priestess, who wore a hooded robe in dark purple, she carried nothing, but held her hands up and out, as she reached Riddick, Jack looked up from under the hood, eyes bright as she stopped before him, closer than the others had stepped.

"We offer you everything, our homes, our existence and our souls." She sunk to her knees and bowed her head before him, and like a ripple that spread from the heart of the crowd, the people that lined the hall began to kneel in a gesture of submission to Riddick.

A large hand came to rest in Jack's vision, Riddick's hand.

"You don't kneel before me, not you." He told her, hesitantly, she slid her own small hand into his and allowed him to pull her to her feet, so beside him, she could see the people on the ground showing their allegiance to him.

"Do me a favour." She muttered under her breath. "Don't fuck this up."

He just chuckled quietly and tightened his grip on her hand.

* * *

"So this is it?" Jack ran her bare toes over the hot dirt of the compound designated to the hold the fighters who would combat the armada.

"The training grounds are just over there." Imam confirmed, a few paces away, Riddick ran the dirt through his hands, standing up and brushing them off casually.

"I lived on this planet for three years, why didn't I know about this place?" Jack asked, looking at the surrounding bleakness, mountains forming a natural caldera around the area.

"It was once a place of worship for a religion, long forgotten." Imam explained as they squinted into the distance at the approaching line of soldiers, bedraggled and unkempt.

"What did they worship?" Jack asked, frowning at the soldiers who failed to hold formation.

"Combat, bloodshed." It was Riddick who answered. "Ground's soaked."

"Looks dry to me." Jack remarked, stirring up dust with her toes.

"It was a long time ago." Imam stopped an argument from brewing, instead guiding them beneath the shade of shelter, where Jack's feet found relief from the hot ground.

"Three weeks to turn them into an army." Riddick spoke, watching the first of the men dump their belongings on the ground and slump down.

"Brutal, I remember you training me." Jack frowned at the memory.

"I went easy on you." Riddick informed her.

"There's a lot more of them." Jack pointed out. "How many of them are going to break?"

"Get them dragging stones." Riddick instructed, moving away to observe the soldiers who still poured in. Jack shook her head and started organising the arrivals. Those who arrived were handed sacks and instructed to fill them with stones, dragging them around until Riddick was satisfied that they were suitably exhausted. As night approached, they were sent away to the barracks, and Imam returned to his family.

Jack stood in centre of the training grounds, barracks in the distance, a mountain of stone filled sacks before her, the men slept, unaware that it was the last peaceful sleep they would have for a while.

"When do the sister's arrive?" Riddick appeared from nowhere, as he always did, eyes shining silver in the dark.

"Sunrise, all of them." Jack told him. "Siniah's echoing because there's no one left."

"Ain't going to go easy on them 'cause they're women." Riddick warned.

Jack laughed. "I'd be disappointed if you did."

"Get some sleep." He advised.

"Take your own advice." Jack suggested, walking away from the mountain of stones and the memory of her own 'training' at Riddick's hands.

"Offering to keep me company?" Riddick fell in step beside her.

"Sure, hope you don't mind if my faith sleeps between us." She said, he watched her as they walked.

"Don't have to re-train you do I?" He questioned.

"I didn't let my training lapse, the Priestesses of the Goddess do learn to fight." She informed him. "We're women, in a world that thrives on brute strength. We're proud that we can defend ourselves, and our beliefs."

"Fancy footwork and pretty blades doesn't make up for stamina and strength." He cautioned.

"No, which is why what we don't know, you'll teach, until we get it, or we die." She stopped in front of the barracks assigned to the Priestesses, empty until they arrived, where Jack would sleep alone tonight.

"This goes south, we're cutting fence, you won't die here." He ordered.

"What about my family?" Her eyes were bright with unshed tears. "You can't dangling them in front of me, soon I will choose them over you, I can't compromise constantly."

"So don't."

"Not that easy." She shook her head. "You said it yourself, we're family too."

"That was when we were going to die."

"Chances are, we're going to die now too." Jack smiled sadly as tears rolled down her cheeks.

"You're not dying." It was an order. feeling stupid, Jack wiped the tears away roughly, turning towards the door to the barracks. He turned to walk away.

"Riddick?" He voice stopped him, he turned back to face her. "On that planet, six years ago, you were going to leave us there weren't you?"

He shrugged. "You or me. I wasn't going to die."

"What changed?" She asked. "You could die, here, now, on this planet, this isn't for your own self service, this is for us, so what changed?"

He walked forward quickly, close enough that Jack had to bend her head back to look him in the eye, his hands reached out to pin her to the wall of the barracks.

"You know what changed." His heated glance look her over, eyes catching the changes of her body, even hidden under her robes.

"That's not what this is about, and you know it." She told him, allowing him to look her over before letting her slip his grasp. He waited until she reached the door and began to slip inside the barracks.

"Jack. Cut your hair and ditch the robes." He instructed.

The next day, The Priestesses of the Goddess arrived in a perfect military procession, their belongings were stored quickly, makeshift alters swiftly erected in each lodging and their fine robes exchanged for practical tank tops and shorts that showed off their legs ending in boots. Most of them were marked with tattoos that symbolised their induction into their order, they abandoned their jewellery and cosmetics weapons and their neatly coiled hair was instead bound behind their heads messily. They formed companies of 100 fighters and set about performing drills under the appraising eye of Riddick.

"They train for this every day." Jack informed him, stepping up beside him in the same skin bearing uniform as the other Priestesses.

"Clothes are almost as impractical as the robes." He noted.

"The warriors who fought here were naked, as I was informed this morning when presented with them." Jack explained, watching the captain of each company bark orders at the flagging members.

"Just bones under the dirt now." Riddick said.

"Why don't you go see to the Chrislam warriors?" Jack suggested. "They're all over there praying for our souls as opposed to running drills." Sure enough when he turned, Riddick saw ranks of men kneeling on the ground praying in the direction of New Mecca, several of them shooting glares at the Priestesses.

"Thought I told you to cut your hair." Riddick told her, noting the messy bun of her hair at the back of her head.

"Not really into the bald head thing anymore." Jack smirked, winding a lock of hair around her finger.

"Send someone to get me when the Free People fighters get here." Riddick instructed.

"I'll get you myself, my superiors have appointed me as your personal envoy for the Priestesses of the Goddess."

"Have my way, you won't be a Priestess much longer anyway." He said as he walked off.

"I'm an acolyte!" She shouted at his retreating back. "Ass."

* * *

"What the hell are you doing?" Riddick found Jack that night with her bare back facing a fire as a Priestess inked a design onto her shoulder blade, Jack clutched her shirt to her chest as the ink filled needle pressed into her skin, the end of the needle being tapped by a small hammer, causing the ink to spread under her skin.

"War symbol." She explained. "We're all getting them."

Riddick looked behind her at the sun being patterned on her skin, and then around the fire, sure enough, several girls were topless, showing less modesty than Jack as they had the sun tattooed on.

"I can cover that up if you want." The girl at Jack's back motioned towards her left arm, at the five symbols on her inside wrist that travelled halfway up her forearm and marked her original indenture as a slave.

"It's okay." Jack said, looking down at them, as if the pattern wasn't burned on the back of her eyelids. "I've had it twelve years, be lost without it."

"Seen some of them on the other girls." The tattooist explained. "Never got them as young as you though, Lupus system?"

"Tangiers." Jack replied, feeling Riddick's eyes burn into her.

"Back's done." The girl declared, backing away from her and giving one last cursory glance at the tattoo on Jack's shoulder before moving to the next girl.

Jack put her back to Riddick as she slipped back into her shirt, the straps of it leaving the tattoo bare to the air, the way the others girls were wearing theirs.

"Had to pull rank on the Chrislams." He explained. "Thought they'd go to hell by fighting beside you." They walked together away from the fire.

"Doesn't surprise me, Imam was never really supportive of my choice of religion, we're all sinners apparently." Jack explained.

"Back hurt?"

"No, the technique means no bleeding, virtually instant healing and means we can go back to training straight away." She told him. "What do you think of the Free People? Do we have a chance at surviving this?"

"_We_ have every chance of surviving this." Riddick told her hotly. "The Helions, their chance ain't as great, the rest of the off-planet fighters arrive tomorrow, that's what'll swing it one way or another, how they fight."

"They'd better be good then." Jack stood in the shadow of her lodgings, the door within arm's reach. "Tell me everything will be okay, just for now."

He ripped off his goggles, clutching them in his fist, silver eyes looking at her, into her. He surged forward, kissing her suddenly, pressing her against the wall as her little hands reached up to wrap around him, draw him closer as he stroked his lips against her, feeling the warmth of her mouth, the flex of her lithe body between him and the wall.

She broke away first, but let her head rest against his chest for a moment before slipping away from him.

"Nothing is ever okay, we fight, people will die, things change."

She was quiet for a moment.

"Not everything changes."

* * *

Review or I kill a kitten. I'm being serious.


	6. Direction Of The Wind

Wow, threaten to kill a kitten, get reviews. Don't worry, the cat survived.

I don't like writing fight scenes, well, I write them, I just never really take the time to stop and analyse the actions, I let them roll, so, whatever was written was made to be breezed over, don't look too far into it.

* * *

Jack stared at her reflection, fighting with herself, on the sink beside her a blade glinted dangerously. Her face in the mirror was mocking her, everything about her reflection made her itch to smash the glass into a thousand pieces. Frustrated, she paced across the small space the bathroom afforded her. From the sink, to the shower, to the toilet, to the sink and so on until she was almost sick with dizziness. Her hair hung around her like a curtain and like a nervous habit, she ran her fingers through it constantly, feeling the silk like texture she was so used to, so unlike her earlier years when a shaved head was both practical and necessary, no lice, no fleas, no males.

Her shoulder itched from when the tattoo healed quickly, a shot to encourage rapid healing had been given to all the fighters when they entered the camp, encouraging much body art among the rapidly swelling numbers of Ground Zero and the other training camps filling up around Helion Prime.

Finally, she sighed, wrapping her fingers around the carved handle of the shiv she had carried since she was twelve years old, fashioned by Riddick and sharpened by her hands, her fingers fit perfectly almost unchanged in the last six years. Like an extension of her arm, it felt so natural to swing the blade up and around in a clean slice, her eyes closing at the last second so she couldn't see the results of her initial cut. Eventually, she opened her eyes and looked at the long fistful of hair she still held, letting it drop to the floor, cleanly severed, what remained brushed her shoulders, almost instantly springing up into spiral curls liberated from the weight of the length. Exchanging her shiv for a more practical pair of scissors, she tided the ends and then pulled her much shorter hair up into a stubby ponytail.

Jack swept up her dark hair from the bathroom floor, mourning it as one would mourn a lost companion before she carried it to a bonfire and threw the whole lot in the flame, watching bitterly as it burned.

"Is it what you want?" A Priestess, Hana, who was older than the others, emerged from the shadows to stand beside Jack, wrinkling her nose delicately at the smell of burning hair.

"I haven't wanted to cut my hair since I was a child." Jack muttered.

"Not the hair, the circumstances that bought you to this." Hana asked. "You could be Priestess, if that is the direction your heart takes you, or you could be his wife."

Jack laughed cynically. "You mean Riddick? Riddick isn't the marrying kind."

"Maybe he would marry you, if that is what you're heart desires, he's saving a universe for you." Hana pointed out.

"Maybe he's just sick of having mercs on his neck?" Jack suggested. "Leader of the Helios army seems a little better than wanted convict."

"I have been told you are closing in on the end of your year as an acolyte, war or no, you must either take your vows, or leave our order." Hana left Jack with that ultimatum.

The next time she met with Riddick, he ruffled her shorter hair like a child's, but made no other move toward her or comment.

"Fight me?" In his large hand was a knife, her knife, and looking down, Jack realised that he'd managed to lift it from her person without her noticing. She snatched it up with a scowl and followed him into a training ring out in the hot sun, all around them thousands of fighters trained in neatly organised divisions, a far cry from the choppy disorder of their first days.

He came at her with no warning, leaving Jack scrambling to dodge his fluid attack, ducking from the sharp blade that came swinging before her, her slight form allowing her to slip away from his and come at his back, getting thrown back as he turned swiftly. She rolled into the throw, landing on her toes and fingertips and twisting to try sweep his legs out from under him, a move he anticipated and responded to by jumping away and allowing Jack time to jump to her feet and come back at him.

Riddick met her attack, turning as she thrust forward, sliding her along and helping with a knee to the back that set her stumbling before she captured his arm and flung herself around to use the knife to slice at the bicep of his weapon arm. His arm curved up with a knife to brush a collarbone before Jack danced away and came back quickly in a flurry of kicks and punches, Riddick parrying each blow before taking the offence, making Jack duck away, putting some distance between them.

Riddick watched as she swapped her knife into her other hand, feet carefully stepping around the ring, circling him as he did the same, the slide of blood down her shirt from the base of her throat was ignored. The both of them were sweaty and hot, blood pumping as fighters stopped to watch them, Jack feinting a lunge to the left before coming in from the right, Riddick meeting her attack and flinging her away like there was nothing to her, Jack hit the barrier of the ring, landing on her feet and swooping in again, her left hand with the knife lashing out and catching the underside of his arm. Taking the hit the arm delivered, Jack stumbled away momentarily, ducking as Riddick's knife whistled through the space her head had been only moments earlier, sweeping out her legs again, she managed to get him to the ground, but losing the upper ground as he threw his knife around and pinned her thighs, dodging her knife as it darted towards him, a hand snaking out to catch the blade. Ignoring the slide of sharp metal on skin, he threw it to the side also and focused on pinning her. Jack lifted her hips to try throw him off, but was caught in the roll of his body, slammed against the hard packed dirt, breath escaping from her lungs, knowing defeat was inescapable, Jack managed to throw a few last, desperate hits, before her shoulders and legs were pinned to the ground. She looked up into Riddick's goggles, letting her body go limp, letting him know he had her down.

"Okay." She panted.

"You got faster." He noted.

"Thought about body building, but didn't want to turn the guys off." She deadpanned, squirming now to try shift the weight of him off her.

"You don't watch your back." Riddick criticized, putting more pressure before easing off and offering her a hand.

"Thought you always had my back." Jack pointed out, letting him haul her to her feet, before she stood steadily, he let go, dumping her back down on her ass. "What the hell?"

"Thought you were a big girl?" Riddick said, anger laced his voice. "You just stay down now?"

"You know I can't throw you once you've pinned me." Jack bitched, rolling away to grab her knife from the dirt and stashing it away at the small of her back. "What is this, a pissing contest? 'Cause I don't have a dick to whip out and measure."

With Jack on her feet now, the two of them faced off, aware of the fighters having crowded around the ring to witness their match, blood and sweat sliding down skin tanned from the sun.

"Work on the hits from your left." Riddick ordered, striding away and leaving Jack alone and confused.

"What are you looking at?" She snapped at the audience, who hurried to disperse. swearing Jack stalked after Riddick, finding him in the designated command centre, which for once, was empty and dark. "You don't get to just walk away from me!"

"Get out Jack." Riddick was braced against a table, a table that held maps and schematics, the very information that would stop the spread of the Necromongers, all open and bare.

"I don't get you." Jack ranted despite his forceful requests. "You've called me everything from a child to a whore, you can't look at me now but you were more than willing to attack me, I don't get you."

Riddick remained silent, goggles clenched in his fist, silver eyes looking through the darkness at the world on the table.

"Six years ago, I took two people off that planet." His voice was quiet, but easy to hear in the silence. "Only planned on taking one, and only because she was there."

"Well I'm sorry your intended fuck-buddy got ripped to pieces." Jack bit out. "Doesn't excuse you for acting like an asshole."

"You were supposed to stay in New Mecca." This wasn't the first time those words had come for him. "I was going to come back for you."

"When, Riddick?" Jack asked, crossing the room to stand beside him. "It's one thing to have intentions, it's another to carry them out, I spent three years in New Mecca, I was not going to spend my life waiting on a ghost."

Leaving him in his brooding silence, Jack found the blacksmiths, who were working continuously to improve upon the weaponry and armour supplied by the different planets of the Helion System, no amount of technology could substitute the physical work undertaken by the men who had erected a makeshift forge in the middle of the supply area of the camp.

"Need a new blade Miss?" A teenage boy with kind eyes addressed her from where he turned a red hot blade while another man hammered away at the steel.

"I Make my own, just need a sharpening stone." Jack explained, looking at the polished steel of the newly forged blade, the kind of weapon that would become paramount in a battle of useless guns.

The apprentice, with urging from the blacksmith, scurried away and returned with a sharpening stone, which he handed to Jack nervously.

"Are you a Priestess?" He asked, flinching slightly.

Jack smiled softly. "I'm an acolyte, not a Priestess yet."

"Will you take the veil, before the war?" He asked curiously.

"We don't take the veil." Jack explained with a small shake of her head. "We take vows, get tattooed, get presented with new weapons and offer every aspect of our lives to the service of the Goddess."

The boy bit his lip before hesitatingly speaking. "Is it true you're in the service of the Warlord Riddick?"

This made Jack laugh out loud. "You saw us fighting, didn't you?" The boy nodded eagerly. "I'm a envoy of the Priestesses of Siniah, I was acquainted with Riddick many years ago."

As if the name summoned him, Riddick was at her side, grasping her elbow and pulling her away from the forge, Jack let him lead her to the command centre where the heads of several factions were assembled, along with the Helion Council and the Elementals.

"The Necromongers have reached the moons of Helion Five, evacuations were only half complete before Lykurgos was destroyed, and the Wanderers of Selene disregarded our warnings and have perished." Aereon addressed the group.

"Two moons of five, they move quickly." Jack noted, several heads turned her way.

"No doubt that when they destroy Helion 5, they will be thorough." One of the Helion Council members spat.

"It has been recommended that full scale evacuation of all civilians on Helion Prime commence." A council leader announced.

"What system has agreed to take them?"

"Various planets of the Terraulis System." The politicians continued to bicker back and forth, meaning that when Jack slipped away from the meeting, she was almost entirely unnoticed.

"Jack?" Riddick had followed her, watched her as she leant against the wall of the building and let her check rest upon the warm wood, already the sun was setting and night was washing over the camp.

"I think it's time my family left now." She told him.

"Thought the Holy Man had to stay." Riddick said.

"Lajjun and Ziza need to go, find somewhere safe." Her hands dragged through her short hair in frustration.

Even though her back was to him, she felt him approach, a warm hand dropping onto her shoulder and steadying her for a moment before he moved away and left her in the descending shadow.

* * *

"Get up." Jack stubbornly clenched her eyes shut tighter and buried herself deeper in her bedding, not registering the hands on her before they rolled her from her bed and only the ground with a heavy thud.

"It's still dark." She protested as Riddick pulled her to her feet, not letting go this time, and handed her a handful of clothes.

"Five minutes." He ordered. Through sleep clouded eyes, Jack took in the still sleeping forms of the other acolytes around her before she disappeared into the small bathroom, dressing quickly, brushing her teeth and running her fingers through her hair.

Outside men were already awake and moving, running practise drills with determination etched on every face and only the dying light of the few fires to see by. Riddick greeted her by throwing a piece of fruit in her direction and leading her away to where someone waited to transport them in a shuttle. Confused, cold and not quite awake, Jack huddled on her seat, her back pressed against the warmth of Riddick's side, her knife tracing a path through the soft flesh of the fruit which she chewed slowly. when they finally left the shuttle, her meal was eaten and pink had started to touch the horizon, the stars blinking away. The spaceport she had been bought to was bustling with civilians clutching at their most precious belongings, waiting to be herded onto off-planet transports.

"Jack!" A little voice broke Jack from her musings, and she opened her arms in time for Ziza to fling her little body against Jack's. "Are you coming with us?" Her eyes looked up eagerly at her sister.

"Where is Papa and Mama?" Jack asked, brushing away the question. Ziza pointed through the crowd, allowing Jack to carry her as Riddick led them through the crowd.

"My daughters." Imam embraced the both of them, drawing Lajjun into one last embrace before they broke apart, eyes damp, hearts breaking.

"Must we leave Father?" Ziza asked, holding onto Imam's hand with all the grip she could muster.

"You need not worry, my daughter." Imam assured her. "We will be together very soon."

"But, what about Jack?" Ziza cast a desperate glance at her sister.

"We will all be together soon." Imam attempted to placate his pouting daughter, who reached out to wrap herself around Jack.

"Come with us Jack, don't stay here. You could get hurt." Ziza pleaded, and as gently as she could, Jack untangled herself from her sister.

"You and Mother must go and be safe, we're going to stop the monsters." She promised.

"I thought Riddick stopped the monsters." Her lower lip wobbled and her eyes filled with tears.

"Riddick needs help, and we can't worry about you." Jack said, smoothing her hair down. "Come one, we'll see each other soon, think of it like an adventure."

"Like when you were little?"

"Yeah, like when I was little." Jack smiled sadly and let Lajjun pick up Ziza, Imam grabbing their bags.

"Father." Jack's voice drew him away from Lajjun and Ziza. "Go with them, please, get off Helion Prime, you don't need to be here."

"I must stay here, my daughter." Imam told her softly. "I am responsible for bringing Riddick here, I will not abandon this fight. I am needed her."

"They need you too." Jack insisted.

"I have faith in Riddick child." Imam said, as if Riddick himself wasn't standing three feet away. "I know we will all be together, but for now, I must trust that the members of my family who cannot defend themselves as you can, are safe, so I may help where I am needed."

With last tearful goodbyes, Lajjun and Ziza disappeared onto a ship and Imam, Jack and Riddick were left standing there.

"I must get back to the Council." Imam muttered, removing his glasses and wiping at his eyes tiredly. "Keep in contact my child."

Without waiting for a response, he moved away through the crowd and left Riddick and Jack standing there.

"If I'd had asked." Riddick started to say as he steered her through the crowd. "Would you have gone with them?"

"And miss out on this?" Jack asked. She laughed brokenly and wiped away the tears streaming down her face. "Either way, my family is being torn apart. Let's just end this already."

* * *

We're all angsty teenagers. Make me a little less angsty and review, or I kill a teddy bear.


	7. Remember, You Must Die

Well, many thanks to those people who add this to story alert, but can't be bothered reviewing. You guys suck. This chapter hints at a few things, presents opportunities and in all gets things moving, and although I wanted to concentrate on Riddick and Jack interaction, the truth was that if they just jumped in the sack right away it'd just make them both look easy. I did, however, want to show how much faith Jack places in Riddick and vice versa, as well as starting to dig a little deeper into Jack's childhood and what, not just Riddick, made her the person she is.

So moral of the story: Review.

* * *

Once again, Jack was roused from a peaceful sleep, but this time by the gentle touch and murmured words of another acolyte. The sun had begun to touch the horizon, and rising with it, the entire camp was stirring as Jack made her way past fires, tents, buildings and hastily erected eating areas until she reached the Command Centre, Aereon and Imam waiting for her, standing in front of a closed door.

"What's going on?" She asked, hearing no sound coming from the room.

"The Helion Customs picked up a ship arriving on-planet." Riddick emerged from the room, shutting the door quickly, there was only dark on the other side. Jack saw and smelt the blood on his hands and arms.

"We're in evac. mode, who would be that stupid?" Jack questioned, just as the realisation hit her. "Scouting, he's a Necromonger."

"We figured that they would have some surveillance, scouts, something of the sort." Imam confirmed. "We do not know how many or if he managed to send information to the armada."

"You're torturing him?" Jack asked Riddick.

"Ain't working." Riddick's voice was tense with frustration.

"But you're so good at it." Jack teased. "Why do I have to be here?"

"Actually." Aereon intervened. "I suggested it. You may be of some help in interrogating the man."

"If he's even a man at all." Jack muttered, she sighed and dragged a hand through her hair. "Give me five minutes with me. And turn the lights on, he isn't scared of the dark."

Riddick watched her, frowning, as she flipped the lights and observed the man who sat tied to a chair calmly, face betraying no expression despite the blood that trailed down his face and pooled at his feet. He sat as though the last few hours had been spent in total relaxation, his cold eyes tracking Jack as she walked through the room and examined Riddick's handiwork.

"What is she going to do" Riddick asked Aereon.

"They don't feet pain." Jack called, having heard his query. Her fingers danced out to tap the conversion marks on the side of his neck. "Conversion severs the brain's pain receptors, quite smart actually."

"Perhaps why your particular type of interrogation failed to work." Aereon noted, earning a dark look from Riddick.

Jack circled the man more than once, noting the pallor of his skin, his dull lifeless eyes and his unwavering stare. her hands trailed along his shoulders as, predatorily, she came up behind him, leaning over so her lips were next to his ears, and low, too low for Riddick to hear, she began to whisper something to the man.

A few moments later, he crumbled, his hands where they were bound, began to shake violently, his breaths became shuddering gasps and words began to spill from his lips, Jack listened to it carefully, and when it was clear the man had no more to say, she let him go and walked back to where Riddick, Aereon and Imam stood in the doorway.

"He's the only scout, so far, one per planet. The Necromongers know that we've begun evacuations, they aren't aware of the scale of which, more will arrive close to the main invasion. We were right, New Mecca has been pinned as the landing zone and the centre of the conversion and subsequent cleansing." Her face remained impassive throughout all this.

"Very well then." Imam was the first to speak. "I shall inform the council of this development."

"Don't forget to red flag the ship model." Jack instructed. Imam nodded and departed, while Aereon glanced in the room at the Necromonger, who had resumed his blank face and steady stance.

"You will kill him." It was not a question from the Elemental, it was an order and Riddick was almost taken back by the ease in which she ordered the man's death.

"He may still be of use." Jack pointed out.

"There is nothing more to be taken from him." Aereon said briskly. "Kill him and arrange for the body to be disposed of." She left quickly, leaving Jack and Riddick looking between each other and the bound man.

Riddick offered Jack a knife, which she hesitantly accepted, understanding her role in finishing the job Riddick had started. When the Necromonger saw the blade, he did not struggle, although Jack recognised the frantic gleam in his eyes that was quickly buried as she approached him, hands sliding around to pull his head back and slice him ear from ear, the arterial spray spurting through the air and blood gushing down his front. Jack allowed his head to slump forward, making sure he was dead before she wiped the knife off onto his clothes. As she handed it back to Riddick, he caught her arm and held her there.

"Had some practice?" His question was almost an accusation.

"The first man I tried to kill raped me when I was seven, I cut his throat when he was sleeping." Jack told him calmly. "I didn't do it right and he recovered enough to slave me out. I got better at it."

"You were scared on that planet." Riddick noted. "Not a cold blooded killer."

"I was twelve." She snapped. "I still had indenture marks on my arm in a system when slavery was not uncommon nor illegal."

"That's why you were on the Hunter-Gratzner." Riddick mused. "Going to the only system where they don't slave out kids."

"Actually, it was the first ship I managed to stow away on, not big security, probably why Johns chose that ship to transport you, so actually authorities didn't become involved your arrest." Jack informed him. "I didn't count on the crash, or what followed."

They were quiet for a moment, listening the steady dripping of the Necromonger's blood to the floor.

"What did you say to him?" Riddick asked, jerking his head in the direction of the bound corpse.

"A few things I picked up a few years ago." Jack shrugged. "Don't worry about it. We should go trace out ground zero."

* * *

Following her recommendation, that night a team of elites including Riddick and Jack were dispatched to the heart of New Mecca, which was now empty and littered with the remains of a hasty flight. There was two teams of thirty, split up, with a fixed team responding to potential escape and trap alleys. Like the others, Jack was sent of through the streets guided by a virtual map application strapped to her arm, when certain landmarks became visible she earmarked it on her map, networking the data with the fixed team.

"al Walid?" The voice crackled over her headset.

"That's not my actual last name." She murmured, examining the street that branched off into several alleys, all dead ends.

"Jack, we're not reading you." The voice was laced with static, and with an irritated growl, Jack slapped the map reader, swearing as the projected 3D map blinked before shuddering and dying completely. Unhooking a gun from her belt, she fired a flare into the air, watching as the light burst above and brightened up the sky with a blood red haze.

"Alpha, you read me?" Jack asked into an silent headset. "Great." Looking around, Jack could identify that she was in the middle of the market district, towards the end dominated with colourful vibrant fabrics and material goods, following a keen sense of memory and direction, she continued along the streets, taking left and rights as needed that should have bought her to the temple district which was also the very centre of New Mecca where the fixed team waited. However, the path she took bought her into a cluster of unfamiliar buildings with unplanned twisting streets that distorted her sense of direction.

A blade pressed itself against her back, the metal cold through her shirt and Jack mentally berated herself for not hearing Riddick sneaking up on her.

"Very sloppy." His hot breath washed over her neck, pressure was momentarily placed on the blade, pressing into her skin before he drew it away and turned her to face him.

"My comm's are down." Jack complained. "Do you still have contact."

Riddick gave her an incredulous look, indicating his lack of contact to begin with, shaking his head and leading Jack through the maze of streets until she began to recognise the buildings around them.

"You know this place?" He asked, bringing them to a halt outside a small sealed door between two imposing temples of conflicting faiths.

"Wasn't it on the schematics?" Jack asked, reading what was written around the doorframe before stepping back.

"Everything but this."

"Makes sense." Jack conceded. "It's a cemetery."

"Why does that make sense." He questioned.

"After reaching the Convention of Peace, which allowed all the religions to live peacefully without fear of persecution on Helion Prime, they also agreed to follow the traditional beliefs about death." Jack explained.

"Meaning?"

"Cremation, they cremate the dead. By only one church entombs their dead." Jack said.

"The Chrislams?" He guessed.

"No. The Church of the Children." Jack corrected. "That's an underground cemetery full of the bodies of children. And that subject is pretty much taboo around here."

"Could it be of use?"

It was Jack's turn to give him a disbelieving look. "It's an underground chamber full of dead kids, what use could there be." She shook her head and turned around, setting a marker in the ground. Irritated, she adjusted the map reader with no results.

Riddick put a hand on her shoulder, stilling her jerking movements.

"Any places for a base camp?" He asked.

"The Necro said they try aim for the centre, where the most convergence occurs, meaning the Great Hall in the temple district." Jack indicated the street ahead. "We would be better off heading towards the outskirts, the houses."

He nodded at her recommendation, taking her elbow in his hand and guiding her down the narrow streets until they reached the base team, by the time they arrived, the threatening clouds had begun to gently rain and most of the commanders were huddled under an erected tarp. There, they looked over the maps of New Mecca and the division of the separate districts, namely the houses where the devotees of the Religious orders established training centres for potential followers.

Jack frowned as she eyed the maps, as did the other residents of New Mecca, twisting the maps and examining the images of the city.

"Are those tunnels?" Someone finally asked, layering the map to see the a cross-section of the city.

"They run under the houses." Jack traced a finger along them. "And through the temple district."

"What are they for, drainage?" Someone asked, Jack laughed.

"They're thieves tunnels." She exclaimed, almost happily.

Around the table, the others looked confused.

"I thought this was a peaceful planet?" Riddick asked.

"Not always, and thieves tunnels are in most cities on most planets, especially those that are divided into social classes." She explained. "They're difficult to get into to, but lead all around the city, usually opening up all around, we should try find an entrance."

"If these tunnels are as old as the city, before Peace was achieved, it may be almost impossible to locate an entrance." One of the soldiers pointed out.

Riddick turned to look at Jack. "You were an alley kid."

"On a different planet, and we never went into the thieves tunnels, they would have killed us." She protested. They all turned to look at the map again, concentrating on the dead ends.

"One ends in the temple of Apollo." A man explained, indicating a building over their shoulder, shrouded in shadow.

"What are we waiting for?" Riddick turned his back to the light of the camp and pulled his goggles down, Jack following as he made his way to the temple and attempted to open the doors. Jack shouldered past him and slipped her knife between the doors, sliding the lock open with a satisfying snick.

Everything in the temple was covered in a heavy layer of dust, which stirred with their footsteps.

"What happened here?" Jack asked, running her hands over a dust covered statue.

"A long time ago." A soldier explained. "They became divided from their gods, predicted the end and killed themselves. Long before you or I were breathing."

They shined their torches over the faded images on the wall, letting the light dance over the long forgotten gods and words no longer spoken.

"Found it." Jack called, waving everyone over to the image that looked no different from the rest.

"How do you know?" Asked the same soldier who had answered her query.

"Patron saint of children, sailors, archers and thieves, among others." She shined her light over the face of the man on the wall. "Doesn't fit in with the other images."

"How do you know that?" Riddick asked, putting up a hand between the torches held by the others and his eyes.

"Children's homes." Jack shrugged, running her hands over the image, close to the ground, failing to find a catch. Riddick swept out an arm with deadly force, slamming the hilt of a knife into the image and causing the bottom half of the image, roughly the height of Jack, to shift inward, allowing the soldiers to push it to the side, coughing as dust flew out.

There was nothing in the darkness, and the light of the torches only shined so far before fading into the shadows.

"We should wrap this up for the night." One of the men recommended. "We don't know if these tunnels are still structurally intact."

They all looked at Riddick for confirmation, and when he finally nodded his head they all exited the temple, leaving the tunnel access open, outside the rain had grown heavier, weighing down the roughly constructed shelter.

"We've set up sleeping quarters in one of the temples." Jack explained to Riddick as they made their way across the square, clothes quickly being soaked through in the rain. In the temple, cots had been lined up with men at the door distributing torches, blankets and food packs. Jack picked a bed closest to a wall, near a window, with Riddick putting himself between her and the other men in the hall, and if Jack noticed, she didn't comment. It was difficult to miss however, when he escorted her to the washrooms, waiting outside the stall as she stripped off her wet clothing, even handing her the shirt off his own back kept dry by his jacket.

By the time they walked back across the hall, most of the men had stripped off their own clothes and fallen onto their beds, a gentle silence had fallen over the hall allowing them to listen to the rain. Jack dragged her feet in tiredness, her hands dragging through her hair in what was becoming recognisable as a reassuring motion, and by the time she reached her pallet, her eyes were half closed, her body only moving to slump down and curl onto her side, dwarfed by Riddick's large shirt.

Riddick lingered by her side for a moment, throwing a blanket over her sleeping body and watching as her breathing evened out, before he fell onto his own bed, dozing lightly, protecting.

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The Teddy is pretty much about to be a rottweiler's chew toy. Keep that in mind before you don't review.


	8. The World In His Hands

I uploaded this last night, but am now re-uploading it. Not any major changes, so don't panic.

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"Where the hell can I get eyes like that?" She was twelve and hanging from a railing as Riddick stared down Fry.

"Gotta kill a few people." His teeth flashed predatorily and the dominance that rolled off of him in waves excited Jack.

"'Kay, I can do it!" And she had, felt blood, warm on her hands, watched the life fade from their eyes, but this was about a child who wanted to be protected.

"Then you gotta get sent to a slam, one where they tell you you'll never see daylight again." He instructed, a king chained to his throne. "You dig up a doctor and you pay him 20 menthol cools to a surgical shine job on your eyeballs."

"So you can see who's sneakin' up on you in the dark?" It made her young mind spin with the idea of being able to see everything.

"Exactly." They shared a grin until Fry ordered her away and Jack stomped up the stairs, into the night, where she was wrapped up in blue tubing, safe from the creatures in her protective bubble of light.

"That's death row up there." Riddick indicated a space of darkness that only he could see. "Especially with the girl bleeding." There was a bone chilling cry from a creature, as it swooped, carrying her off.

Jack sat up in the middle of the temple, sleeping soldiers around her and the rain still falling on the roof. Slumping back, she dragged a hand over her face and tried to shake off the familiar dream, still feeling the heat of the desert in the cold of the hall and the constricting of her lungs not getting enough oxygen.

"You with me Jack?" Riddick's voice rumbled from the darkness, and Jack in a moment of childish impulse, scrambled from her bed and into his, surprising both him and her and she dove under the blankets and put her back to his chest so he was forced to put his arms around her.

"When this is over." Jack said quietly. "Can we take all these men to that planet and nuke those bastards?"

"Anything you want Priestess." He offered. Jack lay there until the sun began to shine through the rain clouds and the men around them began to stir.

Rested and fed, several of the men plus Riddick and Jack met in the temple of Apollo. in front of the entrance. Riddick entered first, back to the light of the torches held by the soldiers and not even ten feet in, they were confronted by a fork.

Gathering around schematics, they observed the inaccuracies in the maps drawn from the Helion archives until finally, it was declared that they would need to redraw the map.

"Alright." A squadron leader called. "Let's split into teams of two, keep constant communication and watch out for structural weaknesses!"

Communicators were distributed as people paired up, and as Jack linked up with the base team, someone grabbed her elbow in a show of partnership.

"Do I know you?" Jack asked the soldier who gripped her.

"We briefly spoke of Apollo yesterday." The solider explained, syncing his communicator to hers.

"I see." Jack murmured, grabbing a proffered torch and strapping it to her belt, making sure that all her knives were present and accounted for before she led the way into the tunnels, the soldier at her back.

"What's your name anyway?" She called over her shoulder as she walked through the passaged with ease, her companion having to hunch over to avoid hitting his head on the roof.

"I am called Ari." He explained. "Short for Aristides, it means-"

"Best, yes, I know." Jack cut him off, reaching another fork in the passages and uploading it on her map before taking a right, Ari following.

"Jack is not a very feminine name." Ari commented as Jack shined a light over the roots that dangled from the ceiling, putting a marker on her map.

"That was the point." She told him, moving along. "We should be under the House of Stone, look for an entrance."

"Why choose a male name?" Ari seemed confused, Jack didn't blame him.

"Because I was pretending to be a boy." She explained, running her hands along cracks and crevices. "I've had other names."

"But you keep Jack?" He followed her lead and started investigating the seemingly intact walls around them.

"I like Jack." She defended. "She wasn't a little girl, no one messed with her, she was strong."

"Forgive me for saying so." Ari said. "But it doesn't sound like the name of a Priestess."

"No, Priestesses of the Goddess take new names upon their initiation." Jack said. "I was going to be Kyra."

"'Going to be' it sounds as if you do not intend to take your vows." Ari pointed out.

"Aren't you Chrislam?" Jack asked. "You should be encouraging me not to. And besides, we're in the middle of a war, doesn't matter what god you worship, not if you're dead. Got it!" Her hands slipped into a gap and Ari helped her to slid across a stone wall, revealing a staircase. Jack dug a knife from her back and proceeded to carve a symbol beside the entry as Ari synced the location on the map.

"Ladies first?" He gestured, allowing Jack to walk up the uneven staircase, until it ended abruptly. "There is no point, it goes nowhere." Ari shined his torch at the walls, looking around desperately.

Jack whistled to get his attention, and when he looked over at her, she pointed towards the trapdoor above their heads.

"Help me get the bolt." She motioned towards the mostly rusted lock, which was easily broken before the trapdoor could be swung up, meeting slight resistance before giving way and allowing Jack to be boosted up.

A hand grabbed hers, pulling her through the trapdoor smoothly, while Ari waited below, and Jack didn't need to look up to know that Riddick was the one setting her on her feet again, giving her a once over.

"Got me tagged or something?" Jack asked, leaning back to help Ari from the tunnel, Ari seemed apprehensive in the presence of Riddick, slinking to the background.

"Picked up your latest sync." He said, peering down into the tunnel with naked eyes while Jack shined a torch around the empty house, noting the trapdoor having previously been covered with a heavy rug.

"Stupid of them not to notice it." She observed.

Riddick jumped down, landing on his feet and looking back up at Jack and Ari.

"You coming?" He asked. Ari rushed to jumped down, rolling on impact and walking back to stand beside Riddick, looking up at Jack, who snapped her torch back onto her belt and began to lower herself into the tunnel.

Between Riddick and Ari, there was a momentary power struggle as to who would help Jack down, both rushing to lift her down, but it was Riddick who emerged the victor, wrapping his hands around Jack's waist and helping her unnecessarily. Once he settled her on her feet, his hands lingered before he stepped away as Jack gained their bearings.

"Let's head south-east, should take us close to the Space Port." Jack instructed, letting Riddick lead the way, keeping the light at his back.

The tunnel forked again and as Jack synced it, Riddick peered into the darkness, while Ari shifted uncomfortably.

"What way?" He asked Jack, while Riddick kept looking between the two tunnels, face impassive.

"We keep heading south-east, we hit the Space Port." Jack informed them. "Go south and we're heading out into the sands, there's nothing out there."

"So we go south-east." Ari declared, while Jack frowned and looked at her map again.

"South." Riddick said, turning back to them with a hand raised to shield his eyes from their torches.

"But there is nothing out there." Ari protested.

"Leads that way for a reason." Riddick said, grabbing Jack's arm to examine the map projection.

"I say we go south-east." Ari argued. "There are bad things in the sands."

"Superstition." Jack pointed out. "And he's right, it must lead that way for a reason."

"So he can go south! We will go the smart way." Ari yelled, grabbing Jack with the intention of dragging her down the tunnel. Riddick cut in quickly, pulling her away and behind him in a blur of movement.

"Enough." Jack said firmly. "Look." Her torch danced over the wall to reveal a trapdoor just above eye height.

"Where would that lead?" Ari questioned, hands already reaching out to open it.

"We're still under the houses, near a storage room, might be another exit." Jack mused, stepping aside to allow Riddick to smash the rusted lock open with the hilt of a blade. "Do you see anything?"

Riddick stuck his head in the opening and looked around, withdrawing and shaking his head.

"More tunnels. Fork not to far ahead." He described.

"A different layer, I've never heard of thieves tunnels being so intricate." Jack said as she began to upload this information.

"Maybe they weren't for thieving." Riddick suggested. Smoothly, he boosted himself up and into the new tunnel, disappearing into the darkness.

"Do we follow?" Ari asked, looking nervous.

Jack shook her head. "We wait."

For a few moments they stood quietly, waiting, surrounded by silence.

Jack's head jerked up suddenly. "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" They both bounced their torches off the tunnels, the lights fading away into darkness. The sound occurred again, a shallow scraping. "I smell, sulphur." Ari muttered.

Jack crouched down, eyes focused on a rock seemingly situated in the dirt floor of the tunnels.

"Riddick." She called, panic in her voice.

"What is it?" Ari asked, sounding stressed.

"Riddick!" Her voice snapped out as she began to back away into the wall, close to the trapdoor.

"Jack!" Ari yelled at her. "What is out there?"

"Sepsitus." It was little more than a whisper, but as soon as the words left her lips, a rumbling growl reached their ears. Ari paled in fear as Jack drew her knives from her back and took a defensive stance.

"More than one?" Ari asked, grabbing his gun from his waist, aiming into the darkness.

"I don't know!" Jack glanced towards the trapdoor beside them. "Quick, get in."

Ari scrambled to lift himself through, throwing his gun ahead on him into the tunnel, feet flailing as he tried to find purchase on slippery rock. Jack ducked under him, heaving him through as the sounds grew louder, and when Ari finally managed to crawl away, she tucked her knives away and began to lift herself in, just as something long and slimy wrapped itself around her leg, her torch dropped to the floor, the light dying and throwing them into darkness. Jack screamed as the barbs on the Sepsitus tongue dug into her leg to keep hold, attempting to drag her away. Her hands clutched the side of the entrance as she tried to haul herself back in, arms shaking with the effort as her leg was pulled back. Just as her fingers began to slip away, Riddick grabbed her hands, pulling her clear.

"Move!" He ordered, putting her behind him.

"Let's go." Ari insisted, helping her move away. The Sepsitus tongue shot forward, past Riddick and lifted Ari up, dragging him screaming from the tunnel.

There was a sickeningly wet crunch and the sound of hissing filled the air. Jack stood hesitantly, testing her weight on her injured leg, eyes on where she thought Riddick stood in the dark.

Something cold was pressed into her hand, and Jack jumped back in shock, colliding with Riddick who wrapped his hand around her hand, holding the torch he'd pressed there. With hands that trembled slightly, Jack switched the torch on and shined it away from Riddick, into the darkness.

"Is it gone?" She asked, Riddick kept her behind him as they crept forward to peer into the darkness. That was when the chilling hiss of a second creature was heard from behind them.

"Go." Riddick shoved at her, sending her down another tunnel, Jack ran, not looking behind her, but hearing Riddick's boots hitting the ground as he tailed her and the slippery sliding sound of the Sepsitus as it pursued.

Jack saw light ahead and pushed forward, her bleeding leg screaming with every step she took, but she kept running towards an exit, bursting out into the temple of Apollo, Riddick on her heels and a hairsbreadth behind them, the Sepsitus.

Riddick grabbed Jack and pulled her behind a column as the Sepsitus burst through the entry, taking a good part of the walls down with it. Its claws scrabbled for purchase on the slippery tiled floor, while its great scaly body was flung around, tongue darting out, seeking. Finally standing steady, it began to knock down columns and statues, a tail ending in a barbed club swept through carved rock and stone easily.

Riddick kept a tight grip on Jack, her back to his chest as the Sepsitus moved closer to where they stood.

There was a moment of perfect silence as the creature stopped moving and started scenting the air.

"Riddick." Jack breathed the word quietly, her hands carefully drawing her knives with the quietest snick.

"Run." Riddick shoved her one way and then threw himself the other way, into the direct path of the creature, who bellowed loudly and chased him. Jack headed for the doors, pausing to watch as the Sepsitus wrapped his tongue around Riddick's arm, only to withdraw a bloody stump courtesy of Riddick's blade.

Riddick followed the putrid yellow blood trail, dodging the creature's wicked claws and scaling its back to drive a knife through the back of it's neck, the Sepsitus going suddenly limp and collapsing in a great heap, sending Riddick flying.

Jack ran to where he pulled himself to his feet, blood streaming from his arm where the Sepsitus tongue had embedded its barbs, and a gash that traced the line of his cheekbone.

"Didn't know who he was fucking with right?" Jack asked nervously, hands reaching out to turn his face to examine the damage.

"I told you to run." He grunted as she probed the edges of the wound on his face.

"You need stiches." Jack informed him. "And so do I, lets find a med-bay."

When they finally found a med-kit and a quiet place, Riddick let Jack stitch up his face pain-relief free, her hands smearing a sticky paste along the worst of the wound. In return, he carefully pulled from her leg the Sepsitus barbs, adding a few stitches in the worst places and wrapping it all up. He ignored her attempts to help and did his own arm, though letting her wrap fresh white bandages around it and giving him a shot to deal with infection.

Finally, they slumped back into the dark little corner they had found, alone and undisturbed, Jack let her head rest on Riddick's shoulder.

"I should go light a candle for Ari." She sighed, letting her fingertips trace a familiar scar on Riddick's collarbone, a scar she had found when she was twelve.

She started to move, to stand, but Riddick snaked his good arm around her midsection and pulled her closer to him.

"Light a candle for him later. What was that thing?"

"Sepsitus. Desert crawler. They pretty much inhabited the planet before it was terraformed." Jack explained. "Most of them were dead. I wonder what happened to the other one."

"The diversion?"  
"They're mated pairs, together for life. They hunt together." Jack explained. "The other one will probably wither and die."

"Probably?" Riddick questioned.

"She'll choose to live if they have a nest. Then she'll let her offspring eat her."

She tucked her face into his neck and breathed in the scent of blood and death, the smells that always seemed to trail Riddick, he in turn lazily trailed a hand through her hair.

"When does all that Priestess shit occur?" He asked crudely.

"You were listening to us talk?" Jack asked, more curious than annoyed.

"Starting to doubt yourself?" He ran his nose along the underside of her jaw, smelling her.

"You're a bad person." She told him, twisting a hand in his bloodstained shirt. "Don't do this to me."

"If I asked, you wouldn't do it." He stated.

"Try it." Jack snapped, trying to move away from him, but instead being pulled back to straddle his lap, his hands wrapping around her midsection, his eyes staring into hers, Jack tired looking anywhere but at him.

"Don't do it." Riddick ordered, taking her face in his hand and making her look him in the eye.

"How long did we travel together?" Jack asked. "It took nine months for you to see me and Imam to New Mecca, you stayed around for three weeks and you left. That isn't long enough to know a person. These last few weeks are not long enough to know someone. And I was a child then."

"I came back when you were fifteen." Riddick admitted. "Wanted to take you off planet, but the Holy Man wanted to wait until you were legal, knew what I wanted."

"He never said anything." Jack muttered, still trying to squirm away.

"I told him not to." Riddick ghosted his lips over her neck, felt her tense, pressed his teeth to her skin to still her movements.

"What is there for me?" Jack asked him "If I do this? You get bored and I get nothing."

He laughed quietly, deeply. Jack could feel his laugh in her hands where they rested on his chest.

"I didn't wait six years to get bored." He assured her, hands that could kill a man, had killed many men, holding her firmly, yet gently. Hands that moved to sensitive places, moved in ways that made her gasp and shiver.

He kissed her, hard, lips, tongue and teeth, until it was a fight for dominance that he one, like every other fight. He pulled her close and when his hands went roaming, his shifted closer and moved in ways that made him drag her closer, her hands dragging over every part of him she could touch.

Neither of them noticed the tears that wet her cheeks.

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Reviewing and next time you might get something more appropriate for the M rating


	9. Slow Burn

I love the epic reviewers. You guys rock my (odd) socks. And you say nice things. *Hugs*

The trade-off for the beginning of this chapter, I feel is the end. I may have slipped out of character, but hey, this is my story, so let's all dig it.

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The next day was spent discussing defence techniques, in the middle of the Project Planet offices.

"Please. Explain to me how this works?" Imam bid of the boy who couldn't have been any older than Jack.

"So, every planet has been terraformed to support human life?" The kid pointed out. "Terraforming takes maybe twenty to fifty years depending on the size, atmosphere and present climate of the subject planet."

"It creates seasons, air, allows us to grow plants and keep animals." Jack supplemented from where she was perched on a desk next to the boy.

"Areas where the spread of the Terraforming stations overlap are usually lush and fertile."

"But where the don't meet creates areas like the sands, a testament to the planet before Terraforming, so it's a good-bad situation." Jack finished.

"Occasionally, it creates bad weather." He continued on. "And when things such as drought, famine or floods, we can manipulate the weather through the Terraforming stations still present to maintain the atmosphere."

"Or." Jack chimed in. "We can create a thick mass of clouds that cover the planet."

"Hiding within it, an electrical disturbance enough to mess with anything electronic that comes into proximity." The boy finished.

Riddick looked back and forth between the two of them, face impassive, eyes hidden behind his goggles.

"Max here can create this disturbance, but the timing is crucial." Jack jerked her head towards the boy, Max, who held up a paper full of calculations as proof.

"The electrical disturbance part is going to be difficult. Most power on the Helion planets is solar, we'd have to stop using the harvested energy soon so it can be allowed to build up and create the imbalance necessary."

"And heavy rain will no doubt accompany." Jack added. "Also, essentially, we'll be fighting in the dark."

"Which is why, we've been tinkering with these." Max put a round dark metal object, no bigger than his hand on the table.

"You might want to cover your eyes." Jack suggested, tapping the top of the object.

A bright line formed around the middle, as the top of the object lifted slightly as the light streamed out and blinded everyone in the room until Jack tapped the object again the light object closed, the light fading. Everyone blinked away spots in their vision as Max carefully stored the object away.

"Light crystals." Max explained. "Brightened up radically by an introduced chemical, resistant to electrical tampering."

"Light up our battlefield." Jack added.

"So, to create this storm, we have to mess with the water cycle." Max put them back onto the main topic.

"So for the next two weeks, Helion Prime is going to be very dry." Jack said.

"So keep hydrated." Max recommended.

"How are you going to create the electrical disturbance?" Imam asked.

"Oh, no." Max shook his head. "I just create cloud cover, that's up to light and energy."

"Next stop on our tour." Jack promised. "Thanks Max." She yelled over her shoulder as she led Riddick and Imam from the room.

"Anytime!"

* * *

"How have you been my daughter?" Imam questioned Jack later that day as she removed the stiches from her leg in the med-bay. The healing shot meant that after a day the stiches on the deeper wounds were ready to be removed and little scratches had healed up completely.

"You're going to interrogate me as to why I'm not sleeping with the other Priestesses." Jack guessed.

"Are you sleeping with Riddick?" Imam asked bluntly.

She sighed. "I can't remember the last time I slept, let alone with Riddick. War is hard business."

"I am worried about you, tonight should be your initiation." Imam told her.

"And some of the other Priestesses have made it clear that if I don't take my vows, they will kill me." Jack told him, pulling the last stitch free from her leg before pulling her boots back on. "It's custom to sacrifice people who abandon the faith."

"Riddick will not allow that." Imam said.

"You think I want to rely on Riddick to protect me?" Jack argued. "I've always taken care of myself and tonight, I will make my own choice as to take my vows or become their enemy."

"You should not have to be their enemy." Imam protested.

"When this is over, if I'm not dead, they'll want me to be." Jack told him. "And I'm okay with that. I just need to think about this."

"What is there to think about?" Imam asked. "The choice is clear, Riddick or the Goddess."

"What if I don't want either?" Jack exclaimed. "Maybe I want to make my own path."

"These last few days have clouded your faith child." Imam soothed. "Riddick will not allow you to walk alone, but the Goddess offers a path of peace. Perhaps you should talk to Aereon."

"Aereon doesn't have all the answers." Jack said sullenly. "I need to think for a little while."

"Before Riddick returned, you were at peace with your decision."

"That was before the events of two years ago caught up with me." Jack pointed out, leaving the med-bay.

Outside in the blistering sunshine, she could see the men training with bladed weapons, some of them learning from Riddick himself, who was moving fast enough to miss in a blink. When Jack turned away, the Lady Thera caught her eye, beckoning her over.

"Hello Jack." She said softly, inclining her head in a way that sent a rush of hot, dry air towards Jack.

"Thera." Jack sat at the Elemental's invitation. For a moment, they both watched the way Riddick moved, with deadly speed and accuracy.

"If you need a god, any god, look to Riddick." Thera advised. "It is whispered among the people that he is a vessel of the gods, come from the heavens to help them in their struggle."

"No." Jack shook her head. "Riddick is no god. He's not a man either." They watched as he sent several men flying effortlessly.

"Do you understand his devotion to you?" Thera asked carefully.

"His devotion?" Jack gave a strangled laugh. "He learned to get what he wants through violence."

"And yet, like the leader of your family, he protected you fiercely and drew danger away from you." Thera pointed out. "He even put his own life at risk to return occasionally and make sure you were thriving."

"And yet the minute he thinks I've turned the mercs on him, he puts a knife to my throat." A scowl crossed her face.

"Maybe he just needed to find his footing around you?" The Elemental suggested.

"By standing over me?"

They sat quietly for a few moments, watching the fighting before Jack turned away, pulling her legs under her as she idly snapped a twig into little pieces.

"You are restless." Thera stated as she watched Jack.

"I hate waiting for something to happen." She admitted, sweeping the mess she had created to the ground, focusing now on pulling at a stray threat on her shirt before rubbing at the dirt that covered her boots.

"One way or another, change is coming." Thera promised.

"And then? People celebrate Riddick?" Jack scoffed. "He'll disappear again."

"But this time, he will take you with him?"

Jack drew patterns in the dirt with her fingers as Thera watched her.

"I know you're there." She threw over her shoulder at the silently approaching Riddick.

He gave a respectful nod to the seated Elemental as his hand came down on Jack's shoulder. His face was clouded, closed off, she could almost feel the anger in him.

"Come on." He said to Jack, jerking his head. Jack rolled her eyes, but stood, brushing the dirt off her pants and saying goodbye to Thera before following Riddick back to the training ring where more than one soldier was nursing wounds.

"Show 'em the knife throw intercept." He instructed.

"The proper way to intercept, or the one you taught me?" Jack asked, suddenly feeling worried, given what they were about to demonstrate and the dark mood Riddick was obviously in.

"My way." He ordered, unsheathing a knife from his side, the very same he had taught Jack with, making her wince with the memory of failed attempts to parry or catch the knife.

Jack stepped a distance away, taking a solid stance and keeping her hands up in anticipation. The knife was a blur as it flew through the air, a deadly projectile, but finely honed instincts and hours of training triggered a quick reaction as her hands snapped up and caught the blade between two flat palms pressed together, the tip of the knife less than an inch away from her face.

"Throw it back." Riddick beckoned, and in a smooth move, Jack turned the blade and sent it flying toward Riddick, who snatched it from the air easily and without pausing, flung it back at Jack, who this time mirrored his move and caught the knife by moving her shoulders away, sending a hand over the opposite side and catching the blade with one hand before it could pass.

"It's gotten a bit too heavy on the back end." Jack commented, tossing the knife in the air and catching it.

Riddick dismissed the soldiers by jerking his head, they scattered quickly as Riddick crossed the arena to stand before Jack, who offered him his knife back.

He stepped closer to her, taking the knife back and breathing in scent of her hair.

"Your hands have changed, not the knife." He told her. "And you're too tense."

"Remember the part where you're throwing knives at me?"

Riddick took one of her hands and inspected it through his goggles.

"Didn't scar."

"Doesn't mean it didn't hurt." Jack protested, letting him lead her over to a tap where he filled up a water bottle.

"Air's getting dryer." He commented.

"Means that they've already started drawing moisture from the atmosphere." Jack looked at the clear sky, the sun was beginning to set and the first touch of a full moon was promised on the horizon. Looking around, she was startled to see that already, initiated Priestesses were building up bonfires and scattering white rose petals on the packed dirt ground.

"I was told to stay away from you this morning." Riddick informed her, hand on her elbow, leading her.

"I was given a set of ceremonial robes and a death threat." Jack said, feeling him tense.

"You ain't sleeping alone tonight." Riddick ordered.

"Funny." Jack stopped. "I don't remember saying that I wasn't going through with my vows."

"You take those vows, I'll kill you myself." Riddick promised, taking her upper arm in a vice grip.

"So either way, I won't live to see the morning?" Jack asked.

"Exactly."

"I don't want to be steered the wrong way by what other people expect of me." Jack told him, carefully extracting her arm from his grip. "If I ask for it, will you give me space. To think?"  
"You have an hour." He warned, kissing her quick and hard before he swept away. Jack shook her head and headed to one of the old outpost buildings, unoccupied for the Helion soldiers preferential outside sleeping arrangements.

Without even a candle to light, Jack perched herself on a bench and crossed her legs underneath her, letting her thoughts go and meditating.

"Jack." Riddick snapped her from her trance.

"You said you'd give me an hour." Jack protested as he lifted her from the table.

"You've had two." His goggles were gone and so was the sunshine, light danced in the windows from the bonfires and the sounds of hushed voices could be heard. "What's it gonna be?"

"You can't make me choose here, now." Jack shook her head frantically, heart racing as her mind chased endless scenarios to how her life could stem from this one point.

"Time's almost up Jack." Riddick pulled her closer, hands on her hips, eyes staring down at her.

"If I become a Priestess, I know where my life goes." Jack said. "But with you, I could end up anywhere. The Goddess has never let me down."

"Never let you down." Riddick laughed darkly. "Coming from a kid who was slaved out, raped, tortured. Jack, she was never with you."

"You aren't all knowing Riddick." Jack told him.

"Even the Holy Man knew." Riddick said lowly. "Knew that this, us, was going to happen. Face it, where you go, I go. You run, I chase you, you hide, I find you. Not any God or any man will be there like I am."

"Whether I like it or not?" Jack's voice broke as angry tears rolled down her cheeks.

"One life or another." He told her. "Make the choice."

Jack stepped away from his hands.

"I am not yours to manipulate. I am not afraid of you."

"You don't want to look over your shoulder the rest of your life." Riddick told her, stepping in close behind her.

"I don't need to look to know that you're there." She said. "I've always known."

* * *

Aereon and Thera stood side by side, on a hill overlooking the Priestess initiations. Behind them, Vulentia and Ptheria, Earth and Water, bickered at each other.

"Enough." Aereon snapped and they fell silent. "Where is Umena?"

"She has retired for the night, her calculations have tired her." Ptheria offered, the vibrancy of her blue skin dulled by the dryness of the Helion air.

"And of her calculations?" Aereon asked. "What of the Furyan warrior?"

"Something has changed." A shadow detached itself, glided over to where the Elementals stood. Umena kept her face hidden under her hood. "The Furyan no longer walks the path we predicted."

"This was not foreseen." Aereon protested.

Thera placed a calming hand on Aereon's arm, the two elements waged a small battle at their touch.

"The path is still clear." Thera promised.

"The diversion may prove to be fruitful." Vulentia offered.

"Then the course must be continued." Aereon concluded. "Look to the odds, tell me your findings. Furya may be gone, but her strongest warrior will triumph."

Down on the flats, the proceedings began as soon as the moon was at the highest point in the sky. The chanting of the Ladies could be heard many camps over and the fires burned more brightly than ever.

Riddick leaned against a building, watching the proceedings from a distances, eyes once again hidden behind his goggles.

A warm hand touched his arm.

"I expect to find a venomous snake in my bed." Jack informed him. "And if that kills me, I blame you."

"Where are you going to stay?" Riddick asked, looping an arm around her shoulders and dragging her against him.

"Imam said I was welcome to stay with him." Jack said. "But he is disappointed, I can tell."

"You're staying with me." He told her, looking back at the firelight.

"Your confidence is overwhelming." Jack told him dryly. Letting her head rest on his arm, she stared up at the stars, at the comet that approached, bringing death and decay to all that it touched.

"Tired?" His hand came to rest possessively on the back of her neck.

Jack smiled a little. "Not yet."

He led her away anyway, keeping a lazy arm draped around her, the other on his weapons, always prepared.

* * *

Dum-dum-dum. What are those Elementals up to? (no really)

I like my Jack, Kyra was stupid. My Jack straddles the best of both worlds (Without the shades and the hair) Emotions and killer. I'll make it work


	10. The Descent

Enjoy little mortals. Some past issues arise and everyone's a little uncomfortable.

* * *

If Jack thought herself prepared for the stinging words of her jilted sisters, she was wrong. As their laws dictated, Jack was shunned completely, and even the warriors of other faiths kept their distance given the whispers of the nature of her relationship with Riddick.

It was Imam's quiet disapproval that hurt Jack the most. His position on the Helion council meant that their meetings were infrequent, but the morning after her vows should have occurred, he met with her briefly to caution her on the danger of the path she chose to walk, before disappearing. Riddick had appeared then, draping an arm around her shoulders and dragging her out to the training fields to spar with him, her anger making her careless and leaving her with a line of stiches in her shoulder, the wound treated by Riddick himself.

As the Necromongers moved closer, the preparations and training of the warriors around them grew in intensity, from the blacksmiths, blades of all forms were produced and distributed as guns were disregarded for the close kill. Jack found an uneasy acceptance in a group of archers from a small moon, who taught her the use of a bow, going as far as to teach her to carve her own bow and fletch her own arrows, all the while the comet approached until there was only seven days left.

A thick mass of clouds had begun buildings, storm cells forming over the Terraforming stations until they began to spread across the sky, blending and joining together until the sky was covered and the comet could no longer be seen, nor could the stars.

The final evacuations of Helion Prime concluded, with Jack begging her father, through messengers, to leave the planet while he still could. He didn't answer and not for the first time, Jack began to feel very isolated. Riddick found her with a bottle on a dirt hill, looking up at the night sky, the clouds crackling with the first promises of an electric storm to rival all others.

"Want some." Jack held up the bottle as he approached, the amber liquid inside was already half gone and as she stood on unsteady feet, Riddick had no doubts about her inebriation, could smell it on her skin and breath.

He settled her against him and took the bottle, draining it several easy mouthfuls, making Jack frown as she regarded the empty bottle, carelessly throwing it over her shoulder.

"It's dry." Jack commented idly. "Shouldn't be drinking alcohol, dehydrates you more."

"Fry said that." Riddick told her.

"She was right." Jack agreed. "New Mecca's dry, smart not drinking alcohol."

"Where'd you get that then?" Riddick jerked his head in the direction the bottle was thrown.

"Stole it." She admitted. "I was starting to feel like I was twelve again, waiting to die."

"Planet's becoming a desert."

"It'll rain soon." Jack promised. There was a sharp crack and the first strike of lightning forked across the sky, racing into the sand. In the distance, the lights of New Mecca flickered dangerously.

"Not afraid of the dark?" Riddick asked.

"There'll be light for a little longer yet." Jack muttered, and true to her word, the lights of New Mecca continued to shine.

The sound of fighting reached their ears and with low growl, Riddick stood, lifting Jack up as though she were weightless and leading her to where the Chrislam and the Priestesses were standing off, all of them weapons draw, insults being flung back and forth between the space that separated the two groups.

Leaving Jack leaning against a tree with a knife in her hand, Riddick strode into the middle of the fight, weapons out, face black with anger as he started disarming people with the ease of breathing.

When the knife touched her throat, Jack laughed.

"A diversion, right?" She could hear the rustle of clothes and smell the scent worn by the Priestess behind her, things she'd overlooked in her alcoholic daze.

"Only way to get you away from him." The woman behind her confirmed, Jack turned and grinned when she saw who stood there.

"Amara? This is how the initiate you, kill the traitor?" Jack asked, staggering slightly.

"You fled Siniah once, they made you the killer's envoy. You leave us twice, they let me kill you." Amara spat her feet. "You had your chance."

"And I chose him." Jack glanced where Riddick was still taking down the fighters.

"You have to die, it's our way." Amara held the knife in a loose grip, Jack noted with interest, still swaying lightly. "I cannot take my new name until your treachery is dealt with."

Jack held up a hand for a moment to quiet Amara before she leant over into a withering bush and threw up, her throat burning and stomach heaving as she retched, when she finally straightened, she had to wipe the tears from her eyes and lean against a tree to regain her bearings.

"So are you going to kill me or what?" She asked of Amara, who almost looked horrified.

"You have evil in you." The young Priestess gasped.

"Rum, actually." Jack corrected. "And most of it's in that bush now."

Amara's face twisted into a grimace and carelessly, she rushed Jack with the knife, but before Jack could raise her own knife to fend her off, Riddick grabbed Amara's arm, easily breaking it and forcing her to her knees. She screamed, clutching her arm and sobbing as Riddick put a knee to her back, forcing her face in the dirt.

"I could've stopped her." Jack protested, grabbing the knife Amara had dropped and sliding it into the waistband of her pants.

"You can't stand up straight." Came the voice of another warrior who offered Riddick cuffs for Amara, Riddick was not merciful as he jerked her broken arm behind her back to bind her wrists together.

"I can too." Jack pushed herself away from her tree support and almost fell. "No I can't."

Riddick roughly passed Amara to his accompanying warriors, Free People of Helios, and grabbed Jack, easily hauling her into his arms and carrying her away until Amara's broken sobs could no longer be heard.

The swaying motion of Riddick's arms became unbearable for Jack's uneasy stomach, and at her panicked request, he set her down so she could stumble to the side of a building and vomit again, the sour smell clinging to her, mixed with the smell of alcohol.

"I'm never drinking again." Jack declared as she wiped her mouth and accepted Riddick's water bottle. He didn't say anything, just held her hair back as she spat a mouthful of water on the ground. When she was done, he led her back to their room, where she passed out on the bed, snoring softly.

* * *

"The Priestesses are to be punished." Aereon informed Riddick the next morning in a closed meeting between the two of them. Next to Riddick, a cloudy eyed Jack sipped slowly from a bottle of water infused with electrolytes.

"How?" Riddick asked, giving Jack a once over, like he'd been doing all morning.

"Well, that depends on the outcome of our approaching war." Aereon said.

"And should we defy the odds and see this war through." Jack said. "What is the charge and punishment?"

"For attacking the War Lords envoy they will be stripped of rights and privileges as well as their seats on the Helion Council." The Elemental explained.

"There's really no point." Jack argued, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Given my distance at that point, the title of 'Envoy' no longer applied."

"Then the charge will be attacking the War Lord's wife." Aereon snapped. "And the punishment is dissolution of their order and death for their leaders."

"Envoy it is." Jack raised her hands in surrender. "But really, it was to be expected."

Aereon shot a sharp glare towards Jack. "There can be no discord between our people, especially at a time like this!"

Jack simply shook her head and continued sipping from her water bottle, Riddick's hand on her back.

"If I don't die, they will kill me." She promised.

"In further business." Aereon addressed, changing the subject. "The Free People of Helios have offered their services as personal protection detail, for the both of you."

Riddick and Jack exchanged looks before facing Aereon.

"I don't want protection detail." Jack complained.

"I've already accepted on your behalf." Aereon said. "We are running out of time and your deaths would complicate matters."

"I thought I'm going to die anyway." Jack muttered sullenly.

"Unless precise intervention is taken." Aereon explained. "And we have calculated that this has already begun. There is the stain of death on your future, but it no longer blights you entirely.

"How reassuring."

Riddick decided then that their meeting was over, leading Jack outside where she squinted in the glare of the sun through the thick cloud cover, leaning against Riddick as they walked through the groups of fighters gathering their belongings in anticipation for the shift to the centre of New Mecca.

"You okay kid?" He asked as he led her to where a group of Free People waited to guard them.

"It's kind of creepy when you call me kid now." Jack informed him.

"You be okay to travel?" Riddick rephrased the question.

She shrugged. "Like I have a choice."

In the end, she slept on his shoulder in a shuttle transport full of soldiers, each carrying a duffle bag and covered in knifes. Every time a curious glance was sent their way, Riddick would turn his glare in their direction, leaving Jack to sleep oblivious.

In the heart of New Mecca, soldiers from different religious orders refrained from sleeping in their respective temples, instead choosing to mingle freely, both men and woman and although nothing was said, Jack sensed that this was more an ordered move than a willing one. As it was, she and Riddick were put up in the Council Chambers in a bed that was covered in a mound of fluffy pillows and thick blankets on a cloud comfort mattress. Jack almost felt guilty given that the soldiers were sleeping on thin roll-out beds, but in the end the luxury bed won her over and she spent the rest of the afternoon sleeping off her hangover.

When Riddick woke her for dinner, she gave a jaw cracking yawn and stretched out, letting him pull her from the heavenly bed and lead her out into the centre of the temple district, escorted by Free People guards.

For dinner, everyone formed an assembly line, looking over the variety of shapeless, tasteless gruel, stale bread and spotty fruit that resulted from a halted economy. Jack had no qualms about slapping the meal substitute on her plate, but when it actually came time to eat, under the branches of a withered tree, her appetite turned on her.

"Can I fetch you something else?" One of the Free People escorts asked, and although her stomach rebelled at the idea of consuming this 'food', Jack simply shook her head and started eating.

"Proteins and nutrients." Riddick said as he sat beside he bearing a plate of similar substance.

"Tastes like food on Crematoria." Jack shuddered, but continued to eat.

"What?" Riddick's voice had become deadly cold and Jack felt him tense and silently cursed her loose tongue.

"Protein and nutrient mix, what they serve on most prison planets." She stammered.

"Crematoria?" His voice was dark. Grabbing her plate and throwing it to the side, he took her upper arm in a vice grip and lifted her to her feet. "Let's take a walk."

"There's nothing to discuss." Jack hissed at him, mindful of the people around them.

"Alone." Riddick shot the command at the Free People, who all stepped back and allowed him to drag her away from the other soldiers and into the empty halls.

"Going to accuse me of being a criminal now?" Jack asked as he thrust her against a wall and pinned her there under the weight of his eyes.

"Crematoria, Jack?" His voice was angry, his hands ripped his goggles off, the light hurting his eyes but allowing him to stare down Jack, who squirmed uncomfortably.

"It's not what you think-" She started to say, but his arm moved fast to press a knife to her throat.

"Lie to me and I'll kill you." He threatened.

She scoffed. "You couldn't kill me if you wanted to."

He increased the pressure on the knife so that she felt the first sting and the warm slide of blood down her neck.

"The truth." He crowded close, keeping the knife steady, smelling her blood, the first spike of anxiety.

"The past Riddick! That's all it is." She insisted, starting to feel the subtle creep of fear.

"Nobody outs that place." He accused.

"I learned from the best." Jack attempted some humour, shifted her hips to try lessen his weight, but it only resulted in him pushing her against the wall harder. "Look, it was three days."

He was almost entertained by her confession. Almost.

"Three days on a planet where they tell you, you'll never see daylight again?" He felt the racing of her heart, watched as her blood slid down between the valley of her breasts. "No chance."

"Supply ship, bad landing." Jack gasped, lungs fighting against the pressure of Riddick. "More than one of us escaped."

"How many?" He asked, letting up just a little bit.

"Six." She told him. "We scattered on the closest planet."

"Last question." Riddick said. "And you better tell me the truth. What the hell were you doing in Crematoria?" He put more pressure against her body, just a fraction.

"Toombs caught up me." Jack explained in short breaths. "He was looking for you." Riddick backed off completely, drawing his knife away

"What planet did you scatter on?" Riddick asked.

She gave him an odd look. "Theses 5, it's gone now, all the planets in that system are."

Riddick gave a low growl and spun around, putting his fist through the wall.

"Where else?"

"I don't think-"

He cut her off. "I've seen you fight, more than what I taught you, not like how the Sister's fight, more edge. Where else, Jack?"

"Butcher Bay." She admitted sullenly. "A month. We rioted."

"Anywhere else?" He turned back to her, knife held in a death grip. Jack immediately tensed. unfolding her arms in preparation for a defensive stance.

"No." Jack looked as if she wanted to say something else, but at that moment, the lights flickered dangerously and they were plunged into darkness. Instincts had her surging into Riddick's arms, pressing close in the black, flashing back to that planet.

"The power's gone." Riddick commented, eyes flashing in the darkness.

Jack nodded. "They need it for the power surge."

Commotion sounded in the square and Riddick let go of his grip on her.

"This isn't over." Then he strode away, leaving her in darkness.

* * *

So I know where this is going, I just need to bulk it up a little, don't want to end it without mutual enjoyment.

Might up the rating for the next chapter, might.


	11. Roses are Red, Violence is Blue

I'm not a fan of badly thrown around flashbacks, so I might not even have one. But this begins to explore Jack, her relationship with people other than Imam and Riddick, and what happened in her past. More to come on that subject.

* * *

The beeping of their communicator woke her from a troubled sleep. Jack rolled over in the empty bed, hand waving through the air until she realised she was reaching for a light that was not there.

"Lights." Her voice was croaking and confusing clouded her mind as the room stayed dark, bar the rhythmic flashing of the communicator screen. Helion Prime had begun its slow descent into a primitive culture, batteries powered torches, communicators and instruments, a glimpse of things to come. No lights.

Jack finally sat up enough to open the screen and peer bleary eyed at the face in front of her, recognition making her sit up in shock to stare at the person who met her gaze with their own thinly veiled curiosity.

"Lynx?" She furiously raked her hands through her hair, pulling it away from her face, rubbing at her eyes to clear away the last vestiges of sleep.

The man on the screen gave a low chuckle. "I heard you where lookin' for me."

Jack shook her head. "I thought you got fried with the rest of Atlantis."

"Nah, got a ship over to the Hallows." His own eyes carried dark circles, dark hair was lank and unkempt, a scar zigzagging down from his left temple to his upper lip, making it appear as though he were snarling.

"Why did you think I was looking for you?" Jack asked, moving in closer, as though she could touch him. "Where are you, where are the others?"

"Woo, slow down." He laughed and Jack smiled sheepishly. "I'm in a Transporter, on a shipping lane, military. We're headed to the Helios system, hear something's going down. They're saying it's begun, planning or something. They keep talkin' about the Warlord."

"I'm on Helion Prime." Jack admitted. "In the heart of it, preparing. Guess you can say I'm on the Warlord's council."

"So the religious thing didn't work out?" He pried. "Shame, you are the person most deserving of peace and serenity."

"Who told you I was looking for you?" Jack asked again

"Flag was raised, my name was highlighted by a sophisticated search program, sorting through things even the best can't read. Had you written all over it." He explained, on the screen, Jack could see the slight shuffled of movement over his shoulder. "I've gotta keep this quick, I got the missive about an hour ago, had to jump off several planets before I found a patch to get through to you."

"The Warlord is Riddick. The asked him to stop the approaching army." Jack admitted.

"Riddick?" Lynx let out a low whistle. "They were buzzing at headquarters, that makes sense of the commotion."

"You know what's coming?" Jack asked.

"Yeah." He nodded. "I'm in a rotating company, shipping out all over the 'verse. I've been trying to find them. Found a lot of dead planets."

Jack touched a scar on her collarbone, neat and flat, the best kind of scar one could hope for, on the screen, Lynx ran a hand down the scarred side of his face, the lumpy scar tissue didn't stop him from being a handsome man, rather giving him a menacing edge, one that most men worked hard to earn.

"Amatis?"

He shook his head and Jack dropped hers down sadly.

"Look. We're ahead of this comet. We'll be planet side in hours, hyper-speed, most of the men are sick." Lynx explained.

"New Mecca?" Jack asked hopefully.

"Shama Ra, South Sun Side." He corrected. "I'll try jump to the capital. I gotta go, be seeing you."

"Good Luck." Jack bid him, switching off the monitor and slumping back on her cold pillows, the bed feeling too large and overwhelmingly soft, almost as if the pillows and blankets were smothering her, the residual green glow of the screen casting a ghostly gleam over the room.

Throwing back the covers, Jack padded across the floor towards the open balcony, staring out at the dark city stretching out into the distance.

"Can't sleep?" Jack jumped, heart stuttering as she turned to where Riddick lounged on the railing of their balcony, holding something in his hands that Jack presumed to be a knife.

Leaving the dim glow of the communicator, she walked over him, letting him draw her against his side, frowning when she realised that Riddick was holding a red rose in his hands, which he handed to her.

Mindful of the thorns, Jack idly twirled the rose around, smelling the sweet scent.

"My mother smelled like roses." Jack confessed. "Sickly sweet, all the time."

"She was a whore." Riddick remembered snatches of her childhood from the conversations they'd had a long time ago.

"A drug addict as well." Jack added. "I was born hooked on drugs, apparently all I did was scream. It was why she sold me."

They sat there quietly for a moment, Riddick dragging his hand up and down her arm.

"Who was that?" He jerked his head towards the communicator, Jack didn't see the motion, but still understood what he meant.

"One of the men I cut Crematoria with. He's in the military." She scowled, like there was a bad taste in her mouth.

"That a problem?" Riddick asked, letting his large hand cradle the delicate arch of her throat, smelling the skin along her jaw line.

"It wouldn't be, if not for the fact that his unwillingness to kill children for the military landed him in Crematoria in the first place." Jack explained, letting her head fall back as Riddick began to taste the skin of her neck, nipping sharply and soothing it with his tongue, her hand snaked back so she could run her fingers over his scalp.

Riddick's empty hand reached forward to pluck the rose from her hand, crushing the delicate petals in his fist and letting the ruin fall to the floor as he turned Jack around to face him, crushing his lips to hers.

They were frantic in their affection, hands clutching desperately as he dragged her to their bed, until it became a struggle between them, a vie for dominance, as Jack flipped him over, straddling him to lower her mouth to his neck, letting her teeth sink in as he growled in satisfaction, hips thrusting as he out her on her back again, stripping her of her nightshirt, letting the heat of his stare rake down her body.

As he surged over her, Jack sunk her fingers into his back, letting her nails rake down his back as he teased her, encouraging her to peak but withdrawing at the last moment, until she was frantically writhing beneath him.

A twist of her hips and she was clutching onto him, blinded by pleasure as he filled her heart, her mind, her body, and then he was roaring, hands on her hips, lips at her throat, then they lay still, sweaty and entwined.

Outside, it started to rain.

* * *

Afterward, they lay there, hands never straying far from each other, or the knives they had under the pillows, until morning came and a summons roused them. Showering quickly, they were ushered by the Free People guard into a hall, where all five elements were present, four of them bearing grim expressions, the last one hiding her face behind dark veils.

"There is a man here." Aereon announced. "He claims to know you." Her expression was that of guided fury, confusing Jack for a moment until she caught sight of the man who was surrounded by armed troops.

"Lynx!" Like a little girl again, she shrieked in delight and threw herself into his arms, the man laughing and embracing her. "What are you doing here, I thought you were headed to Shama Ra?"

"Drop ship dumping supplies, I went AWOL." He explained, ruffling her hair. "I have a surprise for you." From his uniform, he pulled out a plain folder, carefully handing it to her. Jack opened it, her face splitting into a wide grin.

"No. Fucking. Way." She exclaimed, reading through the papers. Remembering Riddick's presence, she dragged Lynx over to the bigger man, formally introducing them and leaving them to size each other up, while she ducked into an empty conference room to spread out the information she'd been handed.

"Took me two years to assemble that file." Lynx and Riddick joined her in the conference room, none of them sporting fatal wounds, but both watching the other from the corner of their eyes. "Still no sign of Amatis."

"She's either dead, or hidden." Jack mused, sitting on the table as her hands passed over the picture of a young, gangly teen boy. Lynx noticed her fixation on the picture and picked it up.

"He's safe, in Trumaris." He assured her.

"Wouldn't call that safe." Jack said, concern written across her face.

"Someone goin' to tell me what's goin' on?" Riddick finally asked.

"His name is David." Lynx handed Riddick the picture, something akin to respect for the other man in his eyes. "Thrown in Crematoria, just a kid, not much younger than Jackie here."

"Amatis is gone." Jack interjected. "And the final members of our group were a couple of prospectors, caught the wrong bus on a back road, and were put in Crematoria for it."

"Ash and Kore." Jack named them, activating a holographic to show an attractive, dirt covered young couple, in the short loop, the smiled and waved at the projector, laughing silently before Jack shut down the holo.

"You formed some little gang?" Riddick asked sceptically, setting down the papers he held and staring down Jack.

"We were experiments." Lynx announced. "Three years ago we were all part of an experimental procedure when we were roped into the same slave trading ring."

"We were on a ship, in the Tangiers system." Jack explained. "It was a stupid move, but I was there looking for someone."

"You were easy pickings." Riddick deduced.

"Already had the indenture marks." Jack flashed the brand on her forearm. "Not very bright slaves though."

"They kept the fighters drugged, anyone who weighed over a hundred pounds with muscle." Lynx said. "She doesn't look it, but Jackie's pretty spry, they didn't think she'd be threat."

Riddick chuckled darkly and rubbed a scar from Jack on his arm.

"Given at that point, the only training I had was from you." Jack told Riddick. "So it took me a while to slip my restraints. Had to dislocate both shoulders and thumbs. Turned out to be for nothing, shitty mechanic, we blew a fuse while in deep space, far away from any shipping or transport lane."

"They fly blind, and so did the scavengers." Lynx added. "We were starving, the traders were about to resort to cannibalism when they picked us up."

"We thought they were helping us." Jack muttered, her expression dark.

"We were kept in white rooms, drugged, manipulated, tested." Lynx said.

"And tortured." Jack had her knife in her hand as she recollected. "But whatever they were doing, it didn't work, so whoever was in control, shut them down."

"They started killing the weak ones." Lynx explained. "But when they got to Jack, they stopped."

"I didn't know it then." Jack explained. "But Imam had started looking for me, my records were throughout the system. My movements could have been traced."

"So, they blamed the murders of the other slaves on the six of us and threw us in Crematoria." Lynx ended, slapping his leg for emphasis.

"Which we quickly escaped from." Jack added. "Travelled for a bit, scattered on Thesus 5, Amatis in one direction, Ash and Kore in another."

"Me, David and Jackie got off that rock." Lynx jerked his head in her direction. "Were caught and put in Butcher Bay not long after, didn't take us long to get out of there though, longer though, we had David to worry about."

Jack looked deep in thought, and when prompted by Riddick, her head snapped up.

"Trumaris is eleven hours in hyperspeed." She mentioned too casually.

"Jack!" Lynx snapped at her.

"We're about to go to war, Necromongers are out there." Riddick told her.

"You want to bring the kid back here?" Lynx scoffed. "Why, so he can get killed."

"Trumaris is just out of the Helion System, you can get there through a wormhole." Jack protested. "If we fail, he's a sitting duck, they don't evacuate prison planets."

"They did evacuate the prison planets." Riddick announced, making Lynx and Jack stare at him. "They bought them here to be part of the fighting."

"What are the odds?" Jack asked, standing up gathering her pack, checking to make sure the contents remained as normal, stuffing the file and its contents in there.

"Odds of what?" Lynx asked, wincing as she shoved the papers in the bag.

"You, me, David." Jack said. "I'll bet that somewhere, Ash and Kore are on this planet."

"Where are you going?" Riddick asked as she began to leave the room, both men following.

"I'm going to launch a system search, we catalogued everyone who is on Helion Prime." Jack explained, ending up in their room, not even blushing as Lynx eyed their rumpled bed. She activated the communicator, scrolling through the mainframe information.

"You have elementals here, yes?" Lynx asked, trying to read over Jack's shoulder.

"Five." Jack answered, eyes narrowing as she began to sift through names.

"Don't tell me Aereon's here, now." Lynx shook his head. When Jack nodded in confirmation, he swore in frustration. "Weren't you the who told me not to trust her?"

"We need to find David." Jack insisted. "He's just a kid."

"He's not your kid Jack." Lynx told her. "You're getting too personal."

"Tell me it wasn't personal with Amatis." She said quietly, getting in his face.

"That isn't the point." Lynx shook his head in frustration.

"He was ten years old!" Jack whirled around, knife in her hand, anger written across her face. "He was a slave his whole life and then they threw him in Crematoria when he was ten years old!"

"We'd only be leading the danger to him _again_." Lynx told her. Jack put her back to him, eyes meeting Riddick's, who observed the two of them with a cool, calm appearance, but Jack could see the rage of aggression and ager that was collecting under the surface.

She tapped the screen of the communicator. "He's in Pretty Valley. He's here in New Mecca. Don't tell me that's a coincidence."

"What will reuniting all of us achieve?" Lynx asked, looking tired as he ran a hand over the scar on his face. "It's pointless without Amatis."

"She may be dead, but David isn't, and he's a child, surrounded by men who expect him to fight."

Riddick interrupted before she could begin another tirade.

"I'll send a transport to Pretty Valley, get the kid." He crossed the room and spoke quietly to the Free People guards, when he turned back, Jack and Lynx were in a standoff in similar positions, arms crossed, feet shoulder width apart, glaring at each other.

When Riddick stepped between them, stared back and forth at them, eyes hidden behind his goggles, and when he spoke, it was deadly quiet.

"What, did they do to you?" He asked, both Lynx and Jack went on the defensive, avoiding eye contact, bristling.

"They called it the Collective." Jack finally admitted. "They were attempting to create links between people. Cutting into our brains and the like. They did it in pairs to begin with."

"You two?" Riddick asked.

"No." Lynx shook his head. "Me and Amatis, we grew up together."

"Ash and Kore, husband and wife." Jack added.

"And you and David." Lynx said to her.

"David?" Riddick asked.

"It didn't work." Jack said.

Lynx looked up. "There were other things as well."

"We were practice. They wanted to create super soldiers."

"We were pitted against each other." Lynx touched the scar on his face. "Notice Jackie had a fondness for scarring the face?"

"Toombs?" Riddick made it a question.

"Our ticket in and out of Butcher Bay." Jack nodded. "He used David against us."

The communicator chirruped, and Jack danced her fingers over the keypad.

"What's going on?" Lynx asked, looking concerned.

"The Elementals want to talk to us." Jack gauged Lynx's reaction. After a moment, he threw his hands in the air.

"Hey, if she's calling the shots." He conceded. "But make sure she isn't pulling the strings."

"It'd make for a violent puppet show." Jack commented as the three of them found the Elemental's meeting room, a circular space designed for peaceful thoughts.

"Hello Jack." Thera greeted the girl with a bow, hands clasped in front of her, the fires on her skin and gown danced merrily as Aereon appeared beside her, gliding above the floor.

"You wanted to talk?" Riddick growled at them, his patience having been extensively tested already.

"It concerns the child, David." Ptheria told them, looking cheerful as the rain drizzled through a small opening in the ceiling, a small puddle forming at the water Elemental's feet. Vulentia stepped forward, vines curling around her arms like snakes, her red hair contrasting with the green of her skin, like her fellow Elementals, she looked much better from the rain that had begun to hydrate Helion Prime once more.

"Do not worry, no harm will come to him." She placated, standing beside Ptheria.

"You said there was five of them." Lynx hissed at Jack, who shook her head slightly before confronting Aereon.

"You know what happened to us, is it just a coincidence we're all here, now?" She asked the air Elemental, who cocked her head and gave a sly smile.

"You and I both know the odds of that. You will always be drawn together." She told them cryptically. Riddick put a hand on Jack's arm, as if to calm her, or prepare to restrain her as she gritted her teeth in annoyance.

"What is the point?" Jack asked. "We're going to battle, David is just a child."

"You and I both know his importance." Aereon began to circle the three of them, the odd tendril of her robes brushing them.

"When this is over, I am going to make sure you never leave that planet you call home." Jack threatened. "And you will stay away from David. If that's all." She led Lynx and Riddick from the room.

"Are you okay?" Lynx put a hand on her arm, but she shook it off.

"I'm going to wait out front for David." She left them standing in the hallway.

* * *

In my universe, Jack would be the kind to reflect the maternal nature of Riddick in her protection of a child, even is she is still one herself. Review beloved readers, we have more to come.


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